Kelty Wakeley’s Wiki Report
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| Author: Kelty Wakeley | Team: Solar Car |
Approach
The approach was facilitated by performing lab work and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) design selection methodology. The Critical Function Prototype (CFP) is also included here as it directly interfaces with the attachment system.
Initial Design (Return to top)
The initial design ideas are presented here. Although the goal then was to join vertical panels to the top of the frame, it became applicable to the task of affixing the top and bottom shell.
- Initial Description:
The parts I will be working on for the solar car are adjustable solar panel mounting brackets. The panels must remain fixed during any given race day. However, for a course which has sunlight primarily in one general direction, it may increase our panel efficiency to have certain panels angled toward the sun.
Initial brainstorming ideas for the adjustable brackets are shown in the following image.
Latch CFP (Return to top)
The entire shell is meant to lift off the vehicle for charging purposes and to facilitate shipment of the car. Video on You Tube
First QFD Selection (Return to top)
The design refinement was performed using QFD matrix selection. Initial ideas are compared and scored to select which ideas to continue to refine. The QFD matrix items called out by their respective number, which follow:
#1 Sandwich Joint JPEG of Pro-e Drawing | #2 Angle Bracket (The reference) |
#3 Hinge Support | #4 Hook & Loop |
#5 Wire Frame | #6 Hanging Clip & Rail JPEG of Pro-e Drawing |
| Weighted Score | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | |
| Uses many COTS parts | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Ease of manufacture | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 |
| Reliability of Support | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Assembly time required | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Cost of parts/material | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Complexity of Design | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
| Compatable with fiberglass shell | 9 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| Ease of disassembly | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 3 |
| Few modifications to shell | 3 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 9 |
| TOTAL SCORE | 151 | 81 | 69 | 57 | 97 | 131 | |
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| Continue | YES | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
Thus, the sandwich joint, wire frame, and hanging clip with rail are selected to continue with design. Subsequent revisions can be seen in Results.