As we gear up for the 2018 American Solar Challenge, CalSol is excited to reveal our new logo! For 10+ years CalSol has kept our iconic “Flying Cells” logo as the center of our team’s branding. While this logo has served us well over the years, our new logo helps better represent CalSol’s modern existence …
Check out Bay Area Circuits at bayareacircuits.com! Circuit boards are an essential part of our solar car, handing all of the controls and communication between the various systems of the car. On CalSol, the electrical team is responsible for designing and programming the printed circuit boards (PCBs) required to operate the solar car. From a complex …
Bigger Car, Thicker Boards: Thank you Bay Area Circuits! Read More »
Part 2 in a series of posts on our mold-making process. Check out Part 1 here! Whooo! It’s been a while since our last post. We’ve been hard at work fabricating our molds and laying up Tachyon’s shell and monocoque. Now for making our molds. As we learned in our design process, “negative” molds …
Tennis Rackets. Airplanes. Supercars. What do all of these have in common? One answer is: they can all be made from carbon fiber. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites are strong, stiff, and lightweight, making them ideal for aerospace and other high-performance applications. In addition to these properties, carbon fiber composites can also be molded into …
Throughout the history of engineering, people have always been testing things out; whether they’re a caveman clubbing a stick against a wall to see how stiff it is, or an automotive engineer testing the aerodynamics of a sports car in a wind tunnel. However, testing can be cost-prohibitive; industrial-sized wind tunnels cost hundreds of thousands …
CalSol uses carbon fiber composites for many components on our solar vehicles, but we work primarily with rolls of woven carbon fiber or carbon fiber prepregnated with epoxy. Last Thursday, we finally got a chance to see how raw strands of carbon fiber are woven into the fabrics we use for our vehicle. We started …
On Saturday, CalSol had the opportunity to bring Zephyr to Cal’s homecoming game vs Arizona. We had a lovely spot in the Blue and Gold zone where Cal fans of all ages got to learn about the car and the benefits of renewable energy. A huge thanks to Cal Athletics for inviting us! On Sunday, …
Although the school year has just begun, CalSol has already dived headlong into what promises to be an exciting build cycle. We began this past weekend by hosting a joint kickoff and showcase event with Berkeley’s Formula SAE competition team on Friday night. Prospective members for both teams were treated to a BBQ at our …
An Exciting Weekend: BBQ, Sponsors, and a Fond Farewell Read More »
Zephyr is ready to ship after a year of hard work, and departed for Texas this afternoon! She will arrive at Circuit of the Americas in Texas on Sunday July 2nd. While Zephyr still needs a few final adjustments after her multi-day journey, we are confident she will be ready for Scrutineering on Monday. …
We are excited to announce Mun Manufacturing Co.’s sponsorship for Tachyon! Mun Manufacturing is a machine shop in Oakland, California, and is run by dedicated owners Dennis and Jeanne Lee. They machined the tooling foam plug for our practice mold this summer, and we look forward to a very rewarding and productive partnership with Mun …
