Projects

CHALLENGE

The hub motor, planetary gearbox, brake caliper and temperature/pressure sensors take up most of the space in the wheel, so the upright isn't treated as an individual suspension component. It has to hold suspension geometry and low compliance while supporting the powertrain components, and be 5-axis machined.

ENGINEERING WORK

• Defined geometry around the packaging envelope set by the hub motor, gearbox and brake package.
• Iterated between FEA and geometry updates to balance stiffness targets against the available space.
• Designed for serviceability and diagnostics: oil drain moved to bottom dead centre with a magnetic-tip drain bolt, enlarged fill and drain ports, and added a temperature/pressure sensor.
• Used topology optimisation to make the upright lighter and stiffer while reusing the existing hub motor, planetary gearbox and hub.
• Applied GD&T and tolerance stack-up analysis for reliable fitment within the corner assembly.
• Produced BS8888 manufacturing drawings and design output for CNC manufacture.
• Ran DFM reviews with the manufacturing sponsor. Where the gap between the pickup points and the temperature sensor feature was too tight to machine well, I bridged the two features with a wide blend radius; rerunning the FEA confirmed lower stress concentrations.

KEY LEARNING

Packaging decisions are important as changing them was more difficult than any later feature did.

CHALLENGE

Replace a steel steering column mount with a carbon fibre structure and aluminium bushing housing. The Formula Student rules template dictate a strict geometric envelope inside the chassis.

ENGINEERING WORK

• Worked with the composites sub-team to confirm ply-layup feasibility and manufacturing constraints.
• Modelled tooling placeholders, checked tool access and machining sequence for the aluminium housing.
• Ran interference and clearance checks so the steering system could be assembled and serviced.
• Produced BS8888-compliant drawings for manufacture.

KEY LEARNING

Rules envelopes and clearance checks belong at the start of a design, not as a sign-off step. Recognising the limits early made every later decision cheaper.

CHALLENGE

The clevises were originally designed in 7075-T6 aluminium, but that stock was needed elsewhere on the car, so most of the clevises had to be redesigned for 6061-T6. A weaker material means larger cross-sections, which means more mass. The goal was to balance increased mass and Factor of Safety.

The project involved two parts, the design of the clevises and the material driven redesign.

ENGINEERING WORK

• Excel hand calculations to establish baseline geometry and cross-check the analysis.
• CAD design with a "block" at different wishbone angles to ensure clearance.
• Ansys static structural to verify a minimum safety factor of 2.0 on yield.
• Accepted a controlled mass increase rather than preserve a lighter, riskier geometry.
• CNC machined, then finished in-house on a manual mill (hole location and drilling, removal of fixturing stock), with fixturing and operation sequencing planned beforehand.
• Verified critical dimensions with micrometers, calipers, dial indicators and bore gauges.

KEY LEARNING

A material change is never a local substitution: it affects section sizing, mass and validation. Treat it as a large design change.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

• Custom sensor brackets for potentiometers and load cells.
• Press tooling for suspension bushings and gearbox bearings.
• Drilled and reamed wishbone bearing holes
• Machined down gearbox hub after manufacturing, required concentricity and careful fixturing. Only about 1mm (depth) of material needed to be removed, but there was no time to have spares made if it went wrong, so the operation had to be right first time
• Dimensional verification with micrometers, calipers, dial indicators, bore gauges and gauge blocks.
• DFM input on CNC shop quotes, reviewing for cost and complexity reduction.

WHY IT MATTERS

Having machined and inspected parts myself, I can spot when a CAD model will be awkward to fixture, inspect or assemble.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

• Measured strain in a loaded beam with a quarter Wheatstone bridge, with data acquisition and calibration against known loads.
• Assembled and demonstrated an alpha-type Stirling engine, connecting build quality to thermodynamic cycle behaviour.

WHY IT MATTERS

The lab work backs up the vehicle work: measurement fundamentals, mechanics of materials, and comfort with both experimental setup and hands-on assembly.

PROBLEM

Manual handling of harvest data risked errors at a point where delays meant spoilage. Reliability mattered more than speed.

IMPLEMENTATION

• Automated the data handling between the ERP system and Excel tracking with Power Automate and Power Query.
• Cut manual translation errors and freed time for higher-value work during harvest.

WHY IT'S HERE

This wasn't an engineering task, but it used the same approach: find the failure points, define the process, validate the result.