Group #2 Design for Manufacturing

Robert Johnson, Jacob Miles, Austin Kleinmeyer, Brandon Griffin, Eliot Lincoln, AJ Engelbart, Palani Parmeswan

Problem Statement
The problem that our group is presented with is designing a complete assembly of an electric car that will accelerate over a ramp and land without breaking. This includes designing the chassis and body, deciding how to efficiently use the gears, and making the design easily manufacturable. Our goal is to design a vehicle that will travel the furthest through the air after it leaves the ramp. While designing a vehicle that maximizes this distance, the critical physical parameters that we have to consider are: Aerodynamics, weight reduction, proficient suspension, gear ratio, balance, durability, alignment, assembly, ramp angle, and acceleration. Aerodynamics is important because it relates to our acceleration, balance, and the distance the car will travel while in the air. The more aerodynamic our car is, the faster it will accelerate, and the greater chance we will have of reaching a further distance. In order to obtain the best aerodynamics, our car should not have too many rough edges that may create unnecessary drag. The vehicle needs to be as light as possible because by reducing weight we can increase our acceleration and the distance traveled. This can be shown by Newtons Second Law, F=MA. By rearranging this equation, we get A = F/M. The lighter the vehicle, the more acceleration we can obtain. We need to have a balanced car so it will not rotate after it leaves the ramp. If our car has more weight on one side then the other, when it launches off the ramp, it will want to rotate in the direction of the weight. This means that when it lands, the force will be distributed unevenly throughout the structure, which can cause damage. The angle of our ramp needs to be calculated for maximum distance. Most engineers know that in order to obtain maximum distance, the

ramp angle would be 45 degrees. However, this is in a perfect world. In the real life situation we have, we need to take into account air resistance. Our group estimated that the best launch angle for this project would be 35 degrees. We need to have a proficient suspension so that the car lands as softly as possible. Since this car is going to be flying through the air, when it lands it will come down with some amount of force. Again, we can look to Newtons Second Law (F=MA) in order to determine this force. The final product has to be easy to manufacture and assemble. If we create a product that is not easy to manufacture, we may run into problems down the road that would require us to redesign our products. Worst case scenario, we may realize this problem when it is already too late. All of these factors need to be taken into deep consideration while designing and constructing our vehicle. While we can figure out many of the problems we will encounter using logic and qualitative analysis, some of the problem we will encounter require the use of some equations. The first equation, and perhaps the most important one, is the equation to calculate the distance our vehicle will travel, shown below.

( (

) )

Using the above equation, we will be able to calculate the estimated distance that the car will travel throughout the air. This equation depends on the launch angle, the velocity the car leaves the ramp with, gravity, as well as the initial X and Y distances. We will use 9.81 take intial X and Y values to be 0. Another important aspect of the vehicle that will involve mathematical equations is the gear ratio. The gear ratio is an important aspect of this vehicle because it plays a large role in the efficiency we can obtain. The equation for gear ratio is: for our gravity, and we will

Gear Ratio = Input : Output

The way this equation works can best be shown by example. In this example, we have a 3 : 1 gear ratio. This means that the output shaft spins one time each time the input shaft (in our case, the motor) spins three times. This equation is also important because it directly affects torque and angular velocity. If we have a 3 : 1 gear ratio, that means that the torque will increase by 3 times but decrease the angular velocity by 3 times as well. It will be important for us to calculate a good compromise between these two factors. There are many other equations we will be able to use to our advantage, such as equations for torque, angular acceleration, pitch diameter, and force. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, our group should be able to solve the problem of building an electric car. Our group will maximize our travel distance by using the engineering skills and logic we have learned throughout college, all while making the vehicle easy to manufacture.