Welcome back to the official newsletter of the Clear River Racing team of 2023!
This month in-house manufacturing really started with CNC milling, manual lathe work, laminating aero components, soldering circuit boards, 3D-printing, welding and much more. The workshop is constantly running hot and with full speed to make certain we are on pace to manufacture all of our different parts!
Let’s hear it from the groups!
Aerodynamics
During February the work for the aerodynamics group has mainly been focused on CNC milling and laminating. Where a few members of the group have been CNC milling our different molds and preparing them to begin laminating our aerodynamic components. The other members of the group have begun laminating the different components from the finished molds. Other than that the aerodynamics group also did a remake of our chem lab to give more storage and space to work on. The work ahead for March is to continue milling our different molds and to laminate our different aerodynamics components.
Chassis
February brought with it quite a change in environment for the Chassis group. With the Structural Equivalency Spreadsheet handed in to the competition judges and all drawings for outsourcing finished and sent away to our sponsors, the computer room could be left in favor of the workshop. With all hands now on deck the monocoque had all of its sandwich material fitted and work began on laying up the final few layers of carbon fiber that make up the inner skin, meaning it was soon ready for the final curing. We also received our cut and notched tubes for the steel frame half of the chassis and the fixture which helps us put them together straight and true, meaning work is progressing rapidly on this as well leaving us on track to finish the chassis in the coming month!
Drivetrain & Electronics
For the drivetrain and electronics group the work in February has focused on completing the ESF (electrical system form) for the competition. We have also worked on developing and improving our precharge along with soldering and testing of different circuit boards for the electrical system. Other than that we have also been working in CAD and adjusted a few designs and started manufacturing with 3D-printing out different prototype components for the air cooling system and battery segment casings.
Marketing & Finance
In February we continued on the momentum built in January. The preparation work for the competition continues along with the production where we help out where we can. Huge thanks to our sponsors that are helping us in this production phase, enabling us to keep moving forward! In March, the focus will be on continuing the preparations for the competition and supporting the rest of the team.
PR
During the month of February the PR group attended the hotspot 2023 fair at Karlstads university where we got to talk to many students about our project. We also went and visited a local high school called Sundsta Älvkullegymnasiet here in Karlstad. Other than that we have been planning for KAU-Dagarna which is an event at the university where high school students will come and visit that we are participating in! We are also in full planning for our upcoming open house that we will have on the 17 och March! So if you haven’t already you can follow the link in our Instagram bio to sign up and come and visit us!
Suspension & Maneuvering
The suspension group has begun manufacturing with the CNC mill and CNC lathe in full scale. The CNCs are running hot each shift. We are currently looking into ways to streamline the manufacturing as we still have quite long changeover times. We have also further collaborated with the sponsors who will manufacture some of our components. These parts will arrive next month.
Happenings upcoming month
During March we will participate in KAU-Dagarna on the 8th – 9th of March so feel free to come and say hi! We will also on the 17th of March host an open house at our workshop so if you feel interested in seeing what we do and get a tour around our workshop you can go to our Instagram page and click the link in the bio to sign up and register interest!
Don’t forget to follow us on our different social media to keep up and get even more behind the scenes looks of the project! @clearriverracing on everything!
Take care and we will see you again in April!
