Merry Christmas!!!

The team took their semester finals on Monday and now is getting ready for Christmas Break. They would like to wish everyone, especially our sponsors, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Ready for Christmas Break

The team has been working on documentation. The groups have been making good progress on their prototypes in the past 2 weeks. They are making their final revisions on the prototype chassis. With Christmas break coming up the team has to prepare for the next semester by lining up our sponsorships for the 2009-2010 season. Starting in January the team has to fill out monthly reports for OPPD. The reports are part of the documentation on the team’s progress. Each report is worth 25 points towards documentation.

Rough Times in Power Drive

The Power Drive team has seemed to lose its way. Many distractions have derailed the direction of the team. The Power Drive team has been working on other projects such as helping the One Act play with their set and organizing the school garage. Absences have also contributed to the delay in progress. Students have missed for reasons such as one act play, sports, illness, assemblies, and an array of other activities. The lack of experience in Power Drive has also created a bump in the road. The bumpy road will hopefully be paved in the near future with hard work and commitment. Students will continue to finish the prototype chassis this week. The Prototype chassis are full scale models built of ½ inch conduit donated by Renz Electric and Plumbing. The team would like to thank Cary and Peggy Renz for their continued support of the Power Drive team. Student teacher Scott Versch and J. Wegner bent the roll bar for the chassis. The roll bar of the chassis has been a hard piece to construct in the past. With the roll bar done the team is looking to finish on Monday, December 7th.

Putting the Pieces Together

The groups have now begun the construction of their prototypes. The groups are making the prototypes from electrical conduit. They have been at it for the whole week and day by day are getting closer to finishing. New measurements and shapes are being designed as they go to improve each group models. The groups weld the pieces together using the GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding) process. This process is easier because it has a continuous wire feed that is adjustable to specific rate. This can contribute to a good weld and also go much faster.

Ready for Prototypes

This week in Power Drive is about the same as the last. The groups are continuing to work on their full sized drawings of their cars. Both groups are working on a top view and also a side few of their models. Along with making measurements for the cars the groups also have to calculate the weight of the chassis and the weight of the materials that go on the car. The chassis is the foundation of the car. It takes a well built chassis to have a fast car. The chassis will most likely be made out of 4130 chrome molly alloy because it is strong and durable. The groups should have their full sized drawings done by next week.

Week #5 in Power Drive

This week in Power Drive is about the same as the last. The groups are continuing to work on their full sized drawings of their cars. Both groups are working on a top view and also a side few of their models. Along with making measurements for the cars the groups also have to calculate the weight of the chassis and the weight of the materials that go on the car. The chassis is the foundation of the car. It takes a well built chassis to have a fast car. The chassis will most likely be made out of 4130 chrome molly alloy because it is strong and durable. The groups should have their full sized drawings done by next week.

Week 4

This week in power drive the team has started outlining their full scale prototypes. They are making their cars to full scale on paper first. From there they will adjust the measurements to make sure that the drivers and parts will fit in the car. Two teams are working on two different cars. The reason they do this is so that they can make adjustments to the car before they actually start building the actual prototype. This saves time and money. The designers of the two cars are M. Wellman and J. Hennig. The cars that were chosen had the less drag and force put on them in the wind tunnel. Both teams are taking a different approach at designing the car. The group using J. Hennig’s model is creating the car from a side view. The group using M. Wellman’s design is creating the model from the bottom view. To see how they are the team is doing check out the blog next week!

Testing

The team is finally done with their wooden models and has been testing them in the wind tunnel. They have been testing last week. There have been some inconsistent results with the wind tunnel and they are working on making them better. The wind tunnel is a devise that the team uses to test the drag and aerodynamics on the models. The wind tunnel has a small grain bin fan that draws air through the tunnel. The fan was donated by one of our great sponsors Stanek Brothers Farms. We give a special thanks to them. It roughly runs at a speed of 85mph. The tunnel is made out of Lexan glass. It is also sealed tight to insure that they are able to get a quality reading from the force sensor. The force sensor is the devise that measures the force on the model. It is attached to a scientific calculator which shows the results. As the fan draws air through the tunnel it pulls on the model and the more the model is aerodynamically the less drag which in turn puts less force on the gage. This is important in making the car. The less force on the car allows the batteries to use less power. In the coming weeks the team will be working on making prototypes of the cars. Check out the blog next week to check out what’s happening with The B-R Power Drive Team.

Week 2 in Power Drive

Week 2 in Power Drive is just as interesting as the first as the team finished up there models and are getting them ready to test. Students are working to get the wind tunnel up and running. First they checked for any defects to make sure that the wind tunnel works properly. “The whole project is going great.” quoted Mr. Smith. The team is starting to test and is finding out just how well their designs will work. In order to have a good car the team must find the model with the least amount of drag and one that is highly effective in aerodynamics. So far the cars that have been tested have had a moderate drag rate. After the wind tunnel testing the team will make full scale prototypes of the models that worked the best. “We are looking at some great models so far that are sure to be winners” Mr. Smith also quoted. It looks like B-R will be looking at another great year in Power Drive!

Welcome to our Blog!!

Welcome to the Bancroft-Rosalie Power Drive Blog! This blog was started because here at B-R we are all about Power Drive. This year the Power Drive team is hard at work designing a new car for competition. The Power Drive team recently raced at Wayne and got 5th, but like any competitive team we don’t like finishing in 5th. So this week the team is working hard to find a good design for a new car. In order to do that the class is making wooden models of their very own design. To start the process, Mr. Smith had his students make designs on paper of their ideas for a new model. The class took about a day or two to get their ideas on paper. “The results came out pretty well as we found some good designs and I liked a lot of the ideas and think they could work really well.” said Mr. Smith. After the class discussed everyone’s ideas they are now making a wooden model. The students will build their models to a scale of two inches equals one foot and are in the process of carving the models out. The class will test the models in the wind tunnel to test the drag and aerodynamics of the car to see which one is suitable to race. I will have a new blog each week to keep you in touch with what is going on in the class and the other exciting events the team will participate in.