Suspension Test Stand
— PROJECT NAME
Suspension Dyno
— ROLE
Lead Engineer
Part of developing the vehicle and powertrain required building a custom test stand to evaluate suspension kinematics, component lifecycle, and force output. I developed the welded steel frame, movement system, and system integration over 2 months.
The frame is designed to test suspension stiffness, so the frame is designed to deflect 0.05 mm per Newton to keep the suspension measurements highly accurate.
Rotary Dyno
— PROJECT NAME
Rotary Dyno Upgrade
— ROLE
Support Engineer
To test the propulsion, or spinning, part of the motor we used our Dynamometer, which is a fancy word to say that we measured the torque and speed the motor puts out and calculate the actual motor power.
The team constantly needs jigging and fixture plates to mount different motor designs to the Dyno. The motor needs something to push off of, or react its torque to. Normally this would be the vehicle chassis, but the Dyno frame takes the chassis' place.
I designed and built the fixture plate, alignment plate, torque reactor, measurement connections, and wheel bearing holders (shown in the red arrows below.
The most challenging parts of this project was creating adjustability to keep the motor and the axle torque sensor concentric, and ensuring the torque reaction device would not buckle or fail under the ~ 2 kN loading while allowing ~ 200 mm of linear and ~90 degrees of adjustment around the motor with very tight clearances.
