https://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/World Solar Challengeen-USTelligent Community 12https://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/m/managed-videos/141512Wed, 10 Nov 2021 20:19:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:b9b27478-d681-4ef5-aa90-9bd1a0a58b2cc.offermannsmould1world_solar_challengesonnenwagen_aachenmouldhttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/m/managed-videosMon, 11 Oct 2021 20:34:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:2acddd04-e1c2-44bc-ac8d-6de64a26d751https://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/b/blogFri, 01 Oct 2021 18:05:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:7ae91775-cb08-4ab9-9787-1c12e5f1abeahttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/m/filesFri, 01 Oct 2021 18:05:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:878dab89-a754-425b-a4a2-6cd4ce4822a9https://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/c/117Fri, 01 Oct 2021 18:05:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:b8b956a0-af74-4a3e-b24a-4f4dc8dc71damigration.userhttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/f/forumFri, 01 Oct 2021 18:05:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:729cefd4-96ef-4774-9ab4-4120bcc094c6https://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/w/pollsFri, 01 Oct 2021 18:05:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:b9b034a2-3c7c-478c-bde8-5c040bc017famigration.userhttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/w/documentsFri, 01 Oct 2021 18:05:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:bed27fc5-80e4-422a-b7af-b8b6bf747b08migration.userhttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/w/documentsFri, 01 Oct 2021 18:05:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:389ea046-f613-44d2-bb7f-768532b9e574https://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/w/pollsFri, 01 Oct 2021 18:05:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:7040b67e-a8bb-4d13-9a48-f8be92b438b2https://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/Fri, 01 Oct 2021 13:15:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:a4bc8f46-388e-420c-94d8-88b261db17d4World Solar Challengehttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/b/blog/posts/sonnenwagen-aachen-we-made-itTue, 28 Nov 2017 11:44:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:7ca46666-ff8e-42df-9c5d-1382e8149ca7mkoschWhat an exiting adventure! After more than two years of hard work and a 3000 km race through the Australian outback, our Huawei Sonnenwagen made it across the finish line in Adelaide. The last months were full of new challenges, teamwork, emotions, surprises and sleep deprivation. Since time has gone by very quickly lately, it is time to recap our trip to Australia. The weeks before the race The first few members of the team arrived in Darwin at beginning of September, just a few days before the planned arrival of the solar car. Being accommodated in one of the largest (and loudest) hostels in the city, we had trouble to stay concentrated to get the necessary paperwork done that was necessary to get our car through the customs and the biosecurity checks at the Australian boarder. Luckily, the local Charles Darwin University provided us with a number of calm and air-conditioned offices. Shortly after we managed to leave the Darwin harbour with our solar car, we were joined by the second group of team members. At the same time, we moved into our own little work shop that was kindly provided by a local car dealership. We spent the last few weeks before the race start with testing and tweaking our solar car, finalising our telemetry and driving strategy system and preparing the camping equipment and our convoy vehicles. None of us would have expected how many technical and logistical challenges there were still left for us to master so close before the race. Not only did our urgently needed tires get stuck in the customs control in Brisbane, but we also had a few major problems with our solar panel wiring, the battery charger, one of our driving strategy computers and a number of other components. After a series of sleepless nights and due to surprisingly fortunate circumstances, somehow everything turned out well and we made it to the start line just in time. Race day 1 Unlike the troublesome days before the race, we did not have any urgent technical problems during the first race day. The weather was only a little cloudy, the telemetry systems constantly and without interruption reported the good state of all components and, unlike many of our competitors, our solar car handled beeing passed by huge road trains easily without leaving its lane. During the first hours, we were overtaken by a few more experienced teams. We kept our speed low, so that we could save battery for the bad weather that was predicted for the following days. Right in time at 5 pm, we found an appropriate camping spot, set up our equipment and inclined the solar panel to catch the last remaining sun light. Even though we noticed the solar panel output to be slightly lower than expected, we could not find an obvious fault. Unfortunately, we also could not carry out any tests after the sun was gone. While a few people were still working on the car to prepare for the next race day, the rest of the team prepared dinner. The air was still very hot and we were surrounded by large and strange insects but all of us fell asleep in no time. Race day 2 In the morning of the second day, we noticed that one of our maximum power point trackers did not work as expected and identified a slack joint as the problem. Even though the fault could quickly be fixed, we probably lost a bit of precious energy. Only a few minutes after we continued our trip, the car suddenly stopped driving. Within a very short time, we managed to identify a cable rupture as the cause and could luckily fix it within a few minutes. Unlike our trailer and one of our support vehicles that both had a flat tire during that day, our Sonnenwagen could make it through the day without further issues. Unfortunately, our battery drained much quicker than predicted at the end of the day due to cloudy weather and, even worse, our driving strategy system predicted a serious energy shortage for the next few days. We slowly realised that we might not be able to reach all control stops and went to bed with mixed feelings. Race day 3 The third day of the race went by really quickly and without any technical problems. As predicted, the weather started to get worse around noon and our battery started to drain in a ominous speed. We managed to get to our camp spot in the evening as expected but with almost no charge left in the battery. We expected not to be able to keep the minimum speed during the next day and hence be excluded from the race. By this time, more than one half of all cars that started from Darwin already had been excluded from the race due to technical reasons or because they could not maintain the minimum speed. Race day 4 We woke up early in the morning on the fourth day because it started to rain heavily and the winds got really strong. We decided to dismantel our camp to protect our equipment and the solar car. As we left our camping spot in the rain a few hours later, we had almost gained no additional energy from our solar panel. We also had a long and steep hill ahead of us and had only little time left to reach the next control stop in Alice Springs, 1500 km away from the start line in Darwin. Consequently, we expected the solar car to shut down every moment while trying to maintain the minimum speed. It was just in this moment that we got a call on our satellite phone from one of our team members who already was in Alice Springs. We were surprised to hear that the opening times of the control stop had been extended by two hours due to bad weather, enabling us to reach the next control stop in time easily. In Alice Spring, we were welcomed enthusiastically by our team members and a large crowd of spectators. It was incredible to see that the clouds suddenly disappeared after we left the control stop. Until we reached our campsite, the road led us through an amazing landscape and our battery was finally gaining charge again. Except for a small shower of rain in the evening, the weather forecast predicted a cloudless sky for the next days. Nevertheless, we knew that we would have to maintain a relatively high speed throughout the next day to reach the control stop in Coober Pedy in time. Race day 5 At the fifth day of the race, the solar car worked like a charm and the solar panel output was even better than expected. Since the weather forecasts predicted a slightly clouded sky in the late afternoon and our driving strategy model warned us about possibly running out of charge before the control stop. That was why we decided to go with the minimum possible speed to reach Coober Pedy in time. Unfortunately, the battery ran out of charge just a few kilometers away from the control stop so that we missed the opening times by a hair. Even though we were excluded from our race class because of this, we were more than happy to end up as the best newcomer team. Race day 6 In order to get to the victory ceremony in Adelaide in time, we were supposed to put the solar car on our trailer for a distance of about 200 kilometres. Since the weather was really good and we were very pleased with the performance of our solar car, we decided to put it on the raod again for the last few hundred kilometers until the finish line. Due to the good weather, we could easily go more than 80 kilometres per hour on average and reached the beautiful city of Adelaide in short time. No words can decribe how good it felt to cross the finish line and take the obligatory bath in the fountain at Victoria Square. The next challenge: Getting ready for the next World Solar Challenge in 2019 The whole team is determined to accept the challenge again in 2019, when the next World Solar Challenge in Australia will take place. The development of the next car will be focussed on testing of the components and the solar car's aerodynamics and weight. We are very confident that we will be able to use our experiences from the first race to make it to the top next time.world_solar_challengesonnenwagen_aachensonnenwagenracesonnenwagenaachenhttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/b/blog/posts/sonnenwagen-aachen---tagebuch-renntag-1Mon, 09 Oct 2017 09:58:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:c7a3d17f-488d-48eb-a412-5201601bb8adc.offermannsHallo liebe Fans, Freunde und Familie, endlich ist unser Huawei Sonnenwagen gestartet! In einer feierlichen Zeremonie haben sich alle Solarrennfahrzeuge im Regierungsviertel von Darwin gemäß ihrer Startposition aufgereiht. Nach unserer tollen Leistung gestern beim Qualifying traten wir auf Platz 5 an, was uns einen kleinen Startvorteil gegenüber den anderen Teams gewährte. Das gesamte Team war selbstverständlich zum Start versammelt, auch wenn auf manche noch Arbeit in Darwin wartete und diese nicht sofort mit dem Rennen beginnen konnten. Begleitet wurde der Huawei Sonnenwagen zunächst nur von drei Fahrzeugen, zu deren Aufgaben jedoch in einem späteren Blogeintrag mehr. Für viele (außer natürlich die Fahrer des nächsten Tages) stand nämlich noch die hoffentlich vorerst letzte Nachtschicht an. Es galt, die Werkstatt des Porsche Centers Darwin, die uns freundlicherweise zur Verfügung gestellt wurde, komplett sauber zu hinterlassen und die massigen Einkäufe der letzten Tage sinnvoll auf alle Fahrzeuge und Anhänger zu verteilen. Dazu waren wir nämlich während der Anstrengungen und Herausforderungen der letzten Tage leider noch nicht gekommen. Am frühen Morgen wurde ein schnelles Frühstück zubereitet und auch die Hostel-Zimmer mussten natürlich sauber hinterlassen und nichts vergessen werden. Was ein Stress! Deshalb fuhr die zweite Hälfte des Teams mit etwa zweieinhalb Stunden Verspätung dem Rennteam hinterher und holte es erst gegen Nachmittag wieder ein. Der erste Renntag lief spitzenmäßig! Der Huawei Sonnenwagen fuhr wie selbstverständlich und, als ob es gar nicht sein erstes Rennen wäre, über die Startlinie in Darwin und wurde dabei vom ganzen Team und unseren Sponsoren bejubelt (wir sind hier übrigens eines der lautesten Teams gewesen ). Auch auf den für uns neuen Kilometern des Stuart Highway lief unser Wagen sehr sicher. Ein großes Lob an dieser Stelle an das Fahrwerksteam: Während wir viele Teams beobachtet haben, die sehr instabil wirken, liegt unser Wagen sicher in der Kurve und auch die Gegenwinde von Roadtrains bringen uns nicht aus der Ruhe. Die Telemetrie liefert konstant Daten und auch die Fahrstrategie funktioniert tadellos und gibt so hilfreiche Tipps zur optimalen Geschwindigkeitswahl. Wir haben heute stolze 493 km zurückgelegt! Auch wenn wir vereinzelt durch andere Solar Car Teams überholt wurden, bleibt zu berücksichtigen, dass am Ende die Gesamtleistung der 5 Tage und damit eine ausgeklügelte Fahrstrategie zählt. Häufiger als gedacht haben wir zudem Solarautos beobachten können, die am Straßenrand standen und ihren Rennwagen reparieren mussten. Auch die Fahrer sind sehr zufrieden mit dem Renntag. Jan und Christoph haben den heutigen Renntag zu etwa gleichen Teilen bestritten und waren damit zum ersten Mal mehrere Stunden in der sengenden Hitze des Outbacks unterwegs. Unserer Fahrerkühlung, realisiert durch einen Lufteinlass, leistet hervorragende Arbeit: Die beiden haben kaum geschwitzt und sich auch nicht über zu hohe Temperaturen beklagt. Bei der Fahrt hörte man jedoch ein etwas beunruhigendes Klackern am vorderen linken Radkasten. Das Problem ist bereits identifiziert und wird heute Abend von unserem fähigen Technikteam gefixt, während unsere Supportcrew das Camp aufbaut und für uns kocht. Nichtsdestotrotz: Wir haben heute 493 km zurückgelegt! Eine tolle Leistung! Wir können die nächsten Renntage gar nicht erwarten. Doch jetzt wird erstmal etwas gegessenworld_solar_challengesonnenwagen_aachenhttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/b/blog/posts/sonnenwagen-aachen---die-erste-prufungMon, 09 Oct 2017 09:55:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:9bf1511d-2865-425d-b498-ef829fe3fa77c.offermannsHallo liebe Fans, Freunde und Familie, was für eine Woche! Diese stand ganz im Zeichen des Scrutineerings und Qualifyings, also den Prüfungen, die unsere Zulassung und Startposition für das Rennen entscheiden. Wir haben so lange auf diesen Moment, unser großes Abenteuer in Australien, hingearbeitet, da machen wir selbstverständlich nicht auf der Zielgeraden schlapp. So wurde wie immer die ein oder andere Nachtschicht geschoben, letzte Details an unserem Huawei Sonnenwagen optimiert und langsam wurde wirklich allen bewusst: Wir sind gerade in Australien, wenige Tage vor dem Rennen, und jetzt wird es erst richtig ernst! Das Scrutineering ist die erste offizielle Herausforderung bei der Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. Bei dieser Inspektion wird überprüft, ob alle Vorgaben an Elektrik und Mechanik aus dem über 40 Seiten langen Regelwerk eingehalten wurden. Dass diese Prüfung kein Kindergeburtstag wird, war uns natürlich schon immer klar, wurde uns bereits ein Tag vorher aber noch deutlicher bewusst. Am Vortag schafften es nämlich nicht alle der 15 Teams die endgültige Abnahme. Für diese hieß es: Zurück in die Werkstatt und nachbessern. Bei sicherheitsrelevanten Bauteilen, die nicht nachgebessert werden können, drohte sogar der Rennausschluss. Im Team war die Anspannung vor dem Scrutineering groß. Keiner hatte Lust auf eine weitere Nachtschicht in der Werkstatt. Als Neulinge hatten wir die Vorgaben sehr ernst genommen und bei allen Konstruktionsarbeiten im Hinterkopf behalten. Bei kritischen Entscheidungen hatten wir stets die sichere Alternative gewählt, auch wenn dies ein höheres Gewicht bedeutete. Das hat sich ausgezahlt. Die Offiziellen waren begeistert von unserem robusten und sicheren Wagen. An fast allen Stationen gab es grüne Punkte für uns. Lediglich die Positionen des Sitzes und des GPS-Trackers mussten um wenige Zentimeter korrigiert werden. Diese kleinen Arbeiten konnten wir selbstverständlich direkt vor Ort vornehmen. Damit war das Static Scrutineering bestanden und die Stimmung im Team oben auf. Mit dem tollen Abschneiden sind wir den hohen Erwartungen, die an uns als „German Engineers“ gestellt wurden, gerecht worden. Das Scrutineering war auch eine tolle Gelegenheit, um die Fahrzeuge der Konkurrenz zu beobachten und sich mit den anderen Teams auszutauschen. Man erfährt, wer welche Probleme hatte und wie man am besten damit umgeht. Die weltweite Solarfahrzeug-Community ist eine offene und freundliche Gemeinschaft. Für unser Premierenfahrzeug gab es viel Lob von den anderen Teams und man freut sich auf den neuen Wettbewerber. Unsere Einschätzung nach dem Vergleichen mit den Wettbewerbern: Wir sind zwar noch nicht auf einem Level mit den Top-Teams, aber wir sind nah dran. Als nächstes stand das Dynamic Scrutineering und das Qualifying an. Beim Dynamic Scrutineering muss das Fahrzeug in einer vorgegebenen Zeit verschiedene Hütchen-Parcours absolvieren und einen Bremstest bestehen. Gelingt dies nicht, drohten Strafminuten. Die geforderten 18 Sekunden unterboten wir mit 15,41 Sekunden locker. Christoph ist sich sogar sicher, dass er noch deutlich schneller hätte fahren können, wenn die Offiziellen uns nicht bereits das „Pass“ gegeben hätten. Auch den anschließenden Bremstest bestanden wir mit Bravour! Damit ging es zum ersten eigentlichen Rennevent, dem Qualifying. Das Qualifying bestimmt traditionell die Startreihenfolge. Wer die schnellste Rennrunde auf dem Hidden Valley Racetrack fährt, darf als Erster starten. Die Rennzeit beginnt dabei mit Abfahrt des ersten Solarfahrzeugs, eine schlechte Position kann also bereits eine Rennzeit von über einer Stunde bedeuten, ohne einen Kilometer zurückgelegt zu haben. Bei der Rennrunde muss der Fahrer den Spagat zwischen Zeit und Risiko schaffen, weil unser Solarfahrzeug nicht für die Beschleunigungen und Kurven eines Hochgeschwindigkeitsrennens ausgelegt ist. Wir trieben unseren Elektromotor trotzdem an seine Leistungsgrenze! Mit stolzen 2 Minuten und 15,9 Sekunden fuhren wir die fünftbeste Zeit auf dem 2,87 Kilometer langen Hidden Valley Raceway und konnten so den anderen Teams zeigen, dass mit uns bei dieser Challenge zu rechnen ist! Morgen beginnt endlich das Rennen, auf das wir und die internationalen Teams zwei Jahre lang hingefiebert haben. In der brennenden Hitze des australischen Outbacks gilt es, die verfügbare Sonnenstrahlung effizient zu nutzen, um die 3022 km von Darwin nach Adelaide möglichst schnell zurückzulegen. Zu den Gefahren auf der langen Strecke gilt neben Hitze, Müdigkeit und der lokalen Fauna auch Roadtrains. Eine weitere Herausforderung stellt die Versorgung und Unterbringung unseres 38-köpfigen Teams dar. Am Ende jedes 9-stündigen Renntages muss von einem Teil der Gruppe während der verbleibenden Sonnenstunden ein Camp mit Zelten und Küche aufgebaut und gekocht werden, während der andere Teil das Fahrzeug für den nächsten Renntag vorbereitet. Unser Abenteuer beginnt!world_solar_challengesonnenwagen_aachenhttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/b/blog/posts/sonnenwagen-aachen-update-5---telemetry-and-driving-strategyWed, 30 Aug 2017 12:33:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:f5124a0c-56c3-49e7-8dbc-ec50b67f0b6cmkoschDuring our trip through the Australian outback, we don't want to leave anything to chance. For that reason, our solar car is equipped with a large number of sensors. We do not only measure things like the vehicle's velocity or the battery voltage, but also less obvious values such as the temperature of our solar cells. All measurement values are wirelessly sent to one of our escort vehicles using a self-designed telemetry system. The transmitted sensor values are automatically preprocessed and afterwards monitored by team members of different departments to search for possible defects. Furthermore, the received data is used to improve mathematical models of the solar car to help us determine a so called driving strategy. Choosing a driving strategy The driving strategy decides how fast we should go on every part of the race track to reach the finish line in the shortest time possible. Since all the energy we use is provided by the sun, we try to minimise the time spent in cloudy areas. On the other hand, we try to keep the velocity constant to reduce the drag forces on the car. Additionally, there are many more objectives to consider, such as headwind, slope and speed limits. It is obviously not an easy task to find a velocity profile that optimises the race time considering all these target functions. Thus, we use an optimising algorithm to help us find a satisfying solution. This calculation will be made several times during the race, especially every time we receive the latest weather forecasts. All results are wirelessly sent back to the solar car to be retraced automatically.world_solar_challengedrivingstrategyrwthsonnenwagen_aachentelemetrysonnenwagenracesonnenwagenaachenfhaachenhttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/b/blog/posts/sonnenwagen-aachen-update-4---designing-the-chassisWed, 16 Aug 2017 11:19:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:17cc7e9e-1746-462f-9ee9-9e22f12ba77cmkoschThe special task of designing a chassis for a solar car When it comes to building a solar car, of course, one important part is the design of the chassis. It does not only establish the contact between the road and the car itself but it is also essential for the efficiency of the whole car. With that in mind, we started our design process from scratch more than a year ago and this is how we came up with our final design. The very special use-case of a 3.000 km race through the outback of Australia At a first stage of our development process, we had to figure out the way we design the chassis. Usual passenger cars with a mileage greater than 100.000 km obviously meet different use-cases than a car which only needs to stand 3.000 km, however the testing kilometers are not included. In addition, whereas commercial sold cars advert the comfort while driving which is mostly made possible by the chassis our Huawei Sonnenwagen will not be designed to offer any comfort for the driver. Sorry about that, future driver of our Huawei Sonnenwagen. The one objective we had to meet is to develop a chassis which lets us drive as efficient as possible. This is due to the only energy source we have, the sun, which can be available all day long in Australia but even there sometimes clouds exist. And thus, to use the collected energy from the sun as efficient as possible is crucial for a good performance during the race. The second important factor, which somehow comes in line with the efficient energy consumption, is weight. Of course, the lighter you are the less energy you need for driving. With all these points in mind, we started to sketch some first ideas of our chassis. With the lightweight design in mind, we quickly agreed on a design where all wheels have their individual axle and linkage. This also became essential when we discussed our first ideas with the aerodynamic team which is responsible for the outer carbon fiber shell of our solar car. With the individual axles, they are able enclose the left and right side of the chassis but keep the room in-between free for fewer drag while driving. The next step was the individual design of the linkages. In modern times of modular systems, we tried to be as modular as possible. This is also due to the production costs automatically associated with prototypes. However, we cannot reach high economies of scale as automotive companies do but we still could lower the manufacturing costs by those means. Thus, we designed the front and rear linkage individually but modular for the respective left and right side. The design of the rear linkage can be seen in the attached picture. Currently, we are very looking forward to assembling the chassis and mount it to our support structure. This will be the process I consider to be the most exciting moment as a designer, when the 3D-CAD data turns into something physical you can turn in your hands and attach to the real model. So, stay tuned for our manufacturing process and the final presentation of the car in mid-July.wheelworld_solar_challengechassissonnenwagen_aachensonnenwagenaachenhttps://community.element14.com/learn/learning-center/stem-academy/solarchallenge/b/blog/posts/sonnenwagen-aachen-update-3---mould-manufacturingTue, 06 Jun 2017 10:41:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:f2cae0cf-1f8d-46e5-b3e6-f836c3a10269c.offermannsThe biggest amount of work when producing fibre reinforced parts is the mould manufacturing. There are many ways to design and manufacture moulds, which all differ in material, cost, time and the process eco-friendliness. Material The common way when producing moulds is the use of polyurethane raw blocks with a density between 450 and 700 kg/m³. The material’s disadvantages are the weight and the price. For our solar car, the mould dimension of the main body alone is 5000 x 2000 x 1200 mm, which would result in an estimated weight of over two tons. Therefore, our chosen mould material is a combination of extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) and the epoxy tooling paste SC 175. The main part of every mould is a raw block out of single XPS-plates. This material is much lighter and cheaper compared to a similar amount of tooling blocks. The tooling paste was applied on the machined XPS raw block on every mould and then machined for a second time. In doing so, we could reduce the amount necessary tooling material to 20% compared to conventional mould manufacturing. players.brightcove.net/.../index.html Process The first principle in mould manufacturing says, that the mould surface defines the desired part surface. Therefore, our moulds needed to be designed as negatives. Starting with our solar car as positive form, the negative moulds for the different parts were designed as CAD-models. While modelling, it was important to focus on the later demoulding process and therefore to avoid undercuts inside of a mould. The XPS-raw blocks were machined with an offset of nine millimetres on every outer surface. After the first machine cut, the epoxy tooling paste was applied with a thickness of 15 millimetres on every mould part with a Nodopox 50 mixing machine. This machine is especially designed for mixing high viscosity, two-component materials. One big advantage of the epoxy tooling paste is it’s fast curing time. The applied material is ready to be machined again after only 48 more hours. After the tooling past was completely cured, every mould part was machined a second time to get its final shape resulting in a mould made of 95% XPS and 5% tooling paste. More information: http://facebook.com/sonnenwagen/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVDNuLYHX0Xg2qb8Oh-y3lQ https://www.instagram.com/sonnenwagenaachen/ https://www.sonnenwagen.org/stem_projectsworld_solar_challengesonnenwagen_aachen