Spring 2016 re-design of structure rods
Posted by: Luis Valdivia (Project Manager)
Written by: Juan Mendez (Manufacturing Engineer)
Table of contents
Introduction
Approach
Re-design
Introduction
Space and weight was an issue with the vehicle. Since we were going to add a buck converter to control the brushless fans we had to reduce the weight of our current vehicle in order to compensate for the weight added on by the brushless fans and buck converter. We also noticed, some of the rod ends were broken from over tightening the set screws to the brackets (from previous semesters). Figure below demonstrates the damaged rods.
Figure 1.1 Demonstration of damaged Carbon Fiber rods
Approach
To reduce the weight, I redesigned the rods that were hold the ducted fans together and made them smaller in length. There were three rods that held the fans together, One of which was 6 inches long and the other two were 2.75 inches long. This was a simple modification. I made the rods to be .46 inches in diameter which was the same size as the previous rods. Since we wanted the rods to be shorter, I made them 1.7 inches long. By doing so, we were able to get rid of the long rod and have four individual rods for each ducted fan. We were able to reduce the weight from 5 grams to 3 grams.
Re-design
Figure 1.2 Design of rod next to 3d print of rod
Figure 1.3 New position of battery due to 3d printed rod
We were also able to remove the middle part of the frame which gave us more space to work with. Now we have no worries about the battery hitting the floor or any surface that the vehicle is resting on.
