During February we underwent a big suspension system redesign. Our previous design used 6 springs, and 12 brackets. It was a very machining intensive design, furthermore it was unconstrained and hysteretic (when the suspension was pushed on, it wouldn't spring back up because of jamming issues due to the high number of joints).
Johnathan and Nick came up with a neat redesign using only two shocks and a pair of hinges. The idea is to emulate what you see on a motorcycle or bicycle rear suspension where you have a combination of a pivot and a spring/shock that absorbs the loads. Nick even designed it so that it would be easily waterjettable with only some slight machining needed.
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New suspension design with a fancy FSAE shock.
Notice the heavy duty hinges towards the front. |
This new suspension gets us a little step closer to a full system test. We are currently planning a trip to Concord sometime during March to see how our vehicle handles in the real roads of Massachusetts.
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