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| Date: 29 November 2006 |
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Table of Contents |
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| Author: Dan Oakeson | Team: Solar Car |
Requirements
The requirements for the steering are as followed:
- Turning radius of 6 meters
- Steering stops
- Stable at speed
- Clearance (were the tires don’t rub on the frame)
- Complete a figure eight
- Complete a slalom test
Specifications
Specifications for the rack and pinion are:
- Needs to travel 127mm
- Needs to be mechanical
- Rack and pinion needs to line up with the steering arm mount holes
- Low amount of force required from user for operation [Newtons]
- Need steering stops
Concept Generation and Sketches
I used mine mapping the help in generating concepts for the rack and pinion. An image of my mindmap can be seen and dowloaded below.
Figure 1: Mindmap
With the restriction of space in the solar car I decided to go with a rack and pinion. The rack and pinion would use less space and be able to move the steering arms 127mm. The sketch for the rack and pinion is below.
Figure 2: Design Sketch
Initial Downselect and Design Refinement
A matrix was used to determine the best design of steering mechanism. The out come of the exercise is that a rack and pinion is a better choice over a pivoting arm connected to two the steering arms. With the rack and pinion, there are two types that had to be anaylized, one with helical gears and the other with straight cut gears. The final design that was selected is the rack and pinion with straight cut gear. The reason for this is because the cost for the helical geared rack and pinion was too much money. Cade drawings of this rack and pinion and the actual one are below.
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| Figure 3: First Design | Figure 4: Second Design |
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