Frame Fixtures

For the 2023-2024 Baja competition season, I designed fixtures to allow for the fabrication of our custom frame. The fixtures are laser cut sheet metal components, which mesh with our welding table to allow us to efficiently and accurately construct our car's roll cage. 

Summary

What:

• Scaffolding to allow construction of frame

• Fully constrain all frame elements

• Should be easy to manufacture and assemble

How:

• Designed with SolidWorks, using converted entities

• Used existing welding table for higher precision

• Laser cut

Result:

• Fully custom frame fabrication with tolerances within 1/16" at all points

• Saved manufacturing time by eliminating over constraining elements

Skill: Project Management

Designing the fixtures was primarily an organizational challenge: there were over 80 unique designs, and 120 custom components needed to create a fully constraining fixture setup. Creating each of these designs and manufacturing files while keeping up with updates on other parts of the car is a challenge that required organization and deadline-oriented goals in order to deliver the fixtures on time. This project taught me the importance of organization when creating and managing a system with many components, as well as creating and following a timeline to ensure our overall team timeline goals were met.