Michigan’s tenth solar car isn’t quite at the point where we can share pictures of it, yet.

There is this simple image that’s an idealized representation of the car.

You probably recognize that as the current logo.

Before the logo, however, came the name…

The name Infinium was chosen in early 2009 by a team-wide election.  It beat a few other name candidates.  All of the contenders had the -um ending, which has been a trend since ’03. Just a refresher…:

• 2003: Spectrum
• 2005: Momentum
• 2007: Continuum
• 2009: Infinium

We’re kind of partial to ending our car names in UM.  We’ll figure out more for later cars, I’m sure.

Once we had the name, we subsequently put out a general request for logo ideas.  We didn’t choose a logo until the very end of August, however. Gerald Chang suggested a simple sketch as a possible basis for a logo in early August, and I then adapted this idea and eventually reached the logo you see above.

The Infinium name unsurprisingly invokes the word ‘infinity’ in many peoples’ minds, and the infinity symbol was used in most proposed logos. The chosen logo, too, was so affected. Ultimately the logo merges this symbol into a simple line profile – similar to the style of the logos for Momentum and Continuum.

Drawing and perfecting the logo on the computer was done using a vector-image program, Inkscape.  I went through quite a few iterations of tiny modifications, as well as receiving feedback from others on the team, before I had a winning design.  In the image below you can see the final Infinium logo, an original sketch, Momentum’s logo, and Continuum’s logo.

Classes are over and work is starting to pick up in the Ypsilanti workspace. Despite the large amount of work required this week to prepare for painting of the body, spirits are high and everything is coming along nicely. Today was windy and rainy, but thanks to one of our Base-X rapid deployment structures, we were able to work through the nasty weather and keep on sanding bondo.

Base-X in Ypsilanti: Gerald grinding Carbon Fiber

Now that we are working full time in the workspace, more effort is being made to keep the space clean and organized. With the chassis successfully built into the body of the car, we were able to put away our long bulkhead layup plates and reclaim precious floor space. Jeremy Nash, on the micro-electrical division, spent a good chunk of the day organizing and cleaning the electrical work area. It hasn’t been so clean in quite some time…

Clean Electrial Area

This week we completed installing the chassis bulkheads into the lower surface of the car. We spent much of the previous week sanding and preparing Infinium for Thursday’s wet carbon fiber layup. Many people came out to help with the layup and placing of the vacuum bag, which seems nearly as large as the workspace, on the car mold. Thursday was very exciting for the whole team–the pieces of the solar car are coming together and Infinium is looking more and more like a car each day!

John Federspiel and Jeff Rogers working on the vacuum bag for the wet carbon fiber layup.

Team members holding the vacuum bag before placing it on the lower surface mold.

Last weekend was a very eventful weekend for Chris Hilger and me. On Friday night a group of race crew members performed the carbon fiber layup for part of the chassis. They finished putting everything together and getting the vacuum bags put on the layups a little before 11 PM. As soon as they finished we loaded them into our trailer to try and make it to Pratt & Whitney in Lansing, Michigan, before the workers had to leave for the night.

An hour and a half later, we arrived at the front gates of Pratt & Whitney, though they had already closed for the evening. Disappointed, we decided that it wasn’t worth it to drive back to Ann Arbor, because we would only have to leave again a few hours later in order to get back to Lansing when Pratt & Whitney opened up at 5 AM. Chris and I waited a few minutes to see if we could see any signs of life inside the gates of Pratt & Whitney, and then decided to find a restaurant to have some food.

After dinner we moved the trailer to an empty parking lot and decided to try to get some sleep. I don’t think that Chris or I noticed how cold it was until I turned the truck off and the heat turned off. I tried to use my coat as a blanket, but it was no use. Neither Chris nor I got more than two hours of sleep.

At around 4:30 we gave up on sleeping and went back to Pratt & Whitney. We got into the gates at 5 AM and were more than ready to get the chassis into the autoclave. Because the plan was to get it cured during the night, however, the autoclave would not be ready again until 7 AM. Again, it wasn’t worth it to go home so we found a mall parking lot to sleep in.

At 10 AM we got back to Pratt & Whitney and picked up the cured chassis, and Chris called Excel Pattern Works, who have supported us by milling and drilling the chassis bulkheads. They said that they would be able to get these new parts cut out if we got the bulkheads to them by noon. We began the long two hour drive to Excel in Dearborn, Michigan. I managed to stay awake and we made it there around noon. We got the chassis parts cut out and drove to our workspace.

We would like to thank both Pratt & Whitney and Excel Pattern Works for their support and flexibility in working with our team’s rapid development and construction pace. Needless to say, Chris and I went back to our rooms and took long naps to catch up on the many hours of sleep that we missed.

The University of Michigan Solar Car Team is pleased to have been granted access to the Aerospace Department’s Autoclave to help cure small composite sections of the car. The team would like to thank Professor Carlos Cesnik, the director of the Active Aeroelasticity and Structures Research Laboratory, for letting the team use his equipment, as well as Ken Salas and Devesh Kumar, Research Assistants, for their help. We used the autoclave to cure the rear fairing.

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The Solar Car Team constructs much of the body of the car using composite materials. Layups for these composites are done conveniently at our off-campus workspace. However, the crucial process of curing the composites requires a very specialized piece of equipment called an autoclave. This equipment applies just the right amount of temperature and pressure onto the composite material for a specified duration, causing the epoxy resin on the carbon fiber to cure.

Previously, the Solar Car Team would have to travel for hours to cure anything from the very large upper and lower surfaces to very small test samples. Using the Aerospace Department’s autoclave for smaller composites will save the team much time in getting a rolling chassis.

Author: Ryan Kraft, Michigan Formula SAE Project Manager

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Picture courtesy of Ryo Okuma, Michigan Formula SAE team member

On March 27th The University of Michigan MRacing Formula SAE Team unveiled its 26th car at the College of Engineering’s Computer Science and Engineering building in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The car will compete in the 2009 Formula SAE Michigan and Formula Student Germany competitions against hundreds of rival teams from across the world.

The 2009 MRacing Wolverine is a 185 kg steel spaceframe car with 10” wheels powered by a 600cc 4-cylinder naturally aspirated engine using E85 fuel. With this platform, the team hopes to meet its goal of scoring 800 points or more at the Michigan competition. The main design objectives for the vehicle were high levels of vehicle dynamics performance and powertrain calibration supported by reliable subsystems. Targets for each system were established using a full-vehicle competition simulation tool developed in-house with support from Ricardo and Pratt & Miller Engineering.

On the powertrain side, the car features a BOSCH Motorsport electronics system with wireless data acquisition, a laser-sintered intake manifold with adjustable runner geometry, a Salisbury differential with in-house casing and ramps, and a dry-sump oiling system. Chassis highlights include custom Penske Racing dampers, CV joints internal to the spindle, in-house radially mounted calipers, fully adjustable inboard and outboard kinematics, and a Watt’s-link style front anti-roll device. MRacing is currently developing a FSAE-specific damper for Penske which will be available for all teams in 2010.

The MRacing team is very excited for the 2009 season after struggling with multiple engine failures at the 2008 Michigan event. Initial tests have been promising, and the team continues to tune the vehicle both on campus and at local proving grounds. The team would like to thank its platinum sponsors, which include BorgWarner, Chrysler, BOSCH Motorsport, Technique Inc., and Liberty’s Gears. MRacing wishes the best of luck to all competitors, and looks forward to seeing everyone’s cars in May and August.

Thanks to our many dedicated manufacturing sponsors, the finished parts to many of Infinium’s mechanical systems are complete.  In spite of the economic downturn, our machining sponsors have still been able to meet or exceed the project’s deadlines while maintaining superb quality.  Thanks to Viper Technologies, Wolverine, Tel-X, Leonard Machine Tool, Stark Industrial, Roush, GT Fab, and Pro-Tech.

The 22nd of April officially marks Earth Day, a day which has been recognized officially since 1970. With the widespread adoption of this celebration, many now recognize April as “Earth Month.” During this year’s Earth Month, one doesn’t have to look far to see that the environment occupies a major position in the global collective conscience. While environmental sustainability and sustainable development are terms that are increasingly prevalent in our society, we hope that Earth Day 2009 presents an opportunity to move past simple rhetoric and reflect on making positive change.

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For Earth Day 2009, our team will be participating in a variety of Earth Day Celebrations throughout the month of April. I encourage you to view our event calendar on our website so that you may learn about our appearances-for those in the state of Michigan, I invite you to join us at one of these events. Our team members look forward to these events where we can showcase our vehicle and the current alternative energy technologies that it incorporates.

Throughout this month our site will feature entries about Earth Day and the future of alternative energy and vehicle technologies.  Once again, please check our events calendar as Earth Day activities are posted and feel free to leave a comment with your own thoughts.