This past weekend, CalSol took a trip out to our composites shed for a hands-on training session focusing on composite layups. We had a really great turnout with new and older members from both the electrical and mechanical teams coming out to learn about a process essential to making a competitive solar car.
The session was part of a continued semi-formal training curriculum that CalSol has been slowly developing and implementing over the past few years to educate our members on various topics necessary to designing and fabricating a solar car. Already this semester the mechanical team has held numerous workshops on a variety of topics from basic modeling using SolidWorks all the way to performing CFD (computation fluid dynamics) analysis. The training sessions serve to introduce CalSol’s newest members to topics that are not covered in their normal coursework or that they won’t see in the classroom for a couple of semesters.
This weekend’s training had members carrying out a vacuum-assisted wet-layup of fiber glass under the guidance of three senior team members. While CalSol plans to move away from the traditional wet layup process by partnering with companies to carry out more advanced composites manufacturing techniques, yesterday’s training still provided new members with valuable skills and experience that can be applied in the future. Specifically, members learned the importance of pre-planning, neatness, accuracy, and how using different layups types (e.g., sandwich vs. laminate, peel vs. release materials) can dramatically affect the properties of the final product.
Due to the work done this weekend and at all the other training sessions, CalSol’s newest recruits are now ready to go and assist our current members in tackling the challenge of designing our next vehicle. From what I have seen, CalSol’s newest generation seems more than up to task of creating our safest, lightest, quickest car ever.
Marc