A-Arms and other material arrived

Last Updated on Monday, 29 March 2010 10:51 Written by Benjamin Jensen Monday, 29 March 2010 10:32

More  parts for our car have arrived, this time it is the A-arms and the material for the impact attenuator.
The  A-arms (wishbones in A shape) were milled out of a AISI 7075 aluminum plate. The design was optimized for high performance and easy manufacturing. The team have chosen to use aluminum to reduce the unsprung mass and the overall mass of the car – all 8 A-arms together weigh about 1.5 kg – which is a big improvement compared  to last year steel tube wishbones.
Thanks to the use of U profile the CNC millingmachine was programmed once for making all 8 A-arms – that reduced the labor hours and the price of the part.

Photos of A-arm can be found here…

Material for impact attenuator is aluminum honeycomb and aluminum foam. The team is about to conduct several test with different configuration of these two materials to find the best possible solution. An impact attenuator is a device which reduce the damage done to structures, vehicles, and motorists resulting from a collision. Impact attenuators are designed to absorb vehicle's kinetic energy.

Have a look at the photos of the materials and a samples ready for testing.