Newsletter of October 2021

We placed second! The NENnovation Award 2021 for students is an award for the most innovative individual or team project that aims to make the world safer, more sustainable, more cost-efficient and/or healthier with an innovative solution or indicates the importance of standardization. We are celebrating this amazing news with the entire team and we want to thank NEN for everything they've done for us so far.

This month we attended several events, like Electrified. On the 9th and 10th of October, we attended the Military Boekelo-Enschede with both the Apex-RS and the Delta-XE. The Military Boekelo-Enschede is one of the biggest equestrian sports events in the Netherlands. With more than 60.000 visitors each year it's the perfect mix of top sport, business and pleasure. It began as an equestrian event, but has now become one of the largest outdoor business-to-business events in the Netherlands!

We got nominated for the Best Student Team Award (KIVI)! KIVI and Ecomobiel chose to nominate certain student teams which achieved a lot during these challenging times. The nominated teams have already shown to be innovative and sustainable in the automotive industry. We got to present our story to a jury. Even though we got selected for the top 5 student teams across the Netherlands, we sadly didn't make it to the top 3. 

Munsterhuis is our mobility partner. They have provided us with a van that we can use to transport the superbikes. Thanks to them we can travel to races throughout the whole of Europe. This makes them a very valuable partner.
 

Ten Kate Racing products is one of our oldest partners. They have helped us throughout the years with a variety of problems regarding parts. They allow us to use their high quality spare parts that are much too expensive for us to buy. Not only do they do that, they also give us access to their top of the line performance dynamometer.
 

This month the focus has been on making both bikes ready for dynamo testing. This allows us to test the functionality of the bike and how it performs. As the chassis team, we can test if the cooling works properly and find out how much power our motorbike is going to have. As we looking towards the future, we are also designing and drafting protocols for dynamo mounting, testing, etc. to ensure safe and proper usage.

As mentioned before, we are also busy with the cooling systems of the DELTA-XE. Here the different loops were inspected and redesigned such that the different components can function at an optimal level. Along this two hose adapters needed to be made for attaching the hoses together. This was a small project, but a nice way for us to get used to turning on a lathe.

This months also included a significant amount of events that we attended. These include the Military Boekelo and Electrified, as part of the 100% auto live conference. Here we got to show off the work of the previous teams and managed to engage with the visitors to grow our influence.

We also redesigned the layout of the electrical components within the DELTA-XE. There were some components that were previously scattered around the bike, but now each of them has their own space. This allows us to make better use of the already limited space inside of the DELTA-XE and it gives the possibility to add more components in the future. For example, the DELTA-XE now includes a black box and a telemetry antenna. The black box allows us to save data in the unfortunate event of a crash of the DELTA-XE (similar to the black box in an airplane). The telemetry antenna allows us to send live data during races and testing so the team can see what is happening within the motorbike and the driver does not need to worry about it.

For the powertrain team October was filled with a large variety of activities. Of course, the major part of these activities were engineering related, but we also visited a few events with the team: The Military in Boekelo, and Electrified in Rotterdam. Furthermore, serveral company visits were made to re-establish fruitful partnerships of previous years and to make new partners.   

One of the engineering projects we have been working on this month was the redesigning of the wiring harness. In the current design, there are some points that can be improved to for example improve the functioning of the data communication lines that run through the bike. Furthermore, some tidying up could be done by reducing the length of some excessively long cables and using the frame as a path to the low voltage ground. Since the rewiring of the bike will require the use of certain specific cables, we are really happy that Helukabel is willing to sponsor the team for the 3rd year in a row! 

Another project this month was to install the cooling node in the bike. The function of the cooling node is to regulate the power going to the pumps in the oil and cooling loops of the bike. In addition, the temperature and flow rate sensors of the cooling loops, as well as the temperature sensors in the electromotor are connected to this node. To test whether everything is functioning as expected, the bike will be tested on the dynamometer next week.  The process of testing on the dynamometer requires quite a lot of preparation and precautions, and therefore Steven – chief powertrain of EST 4 – was so kind to run through the process with us, so that we can test next week.