Racecar Chassis

Our major goal was designing and manufacturing a robust chassis in minimum time and available resources.

Thus, a spaceframe chassis option was finalized due to the easy availability of tubes, less procurement time, relatively fast manufacturing, and easy accessibility.

The chassis which we have designed is made keeping in mind the lightweight of the vehicle to achieve maximum speed.

DIN 2391 ST52 Steel tubes 27 x 1.5 mm.

2mm thick steel sheet.

TIG welding machine.

Power tools and other equipment.

Material: Steel

Dimension: 27 x 1.5 mm

Referring to the above picture, it is a sample steel tube that we used in the making of the chassis. The tube material selection was done considering the chemical composition, weldability, strength, cost, and availability. Cold drawn steel tubes were selected considering easy availability and similar strength to hot drawn tubes. Various grades of alloyed and unalloyed steel were compared. Finally, DIN 2391 ST 52 was selected as the tube material.

After the selection of the tube material, we polished and prepared it for welding.

After several iterations, planning, and discussion we finally came up with a final design.

To successfully manufacture the spaceframe chassis.

We used clamps, wedges and screws to hold the tubes into fixtures.

We created fixtures to support the tubes, for which we used Exterior Grade Medium Density wood Fiber (MDF). The fixtures were designed in such a way that they could be assembled easily in a short period of time.

Space frame chassis is constructed using a number of steel tubes that are welded or bolted together so as to make a stiff structure.

To successfully manufacture the spaceframe chassis, we first had to create fixtures to support the tubes, for which we used Exterior Grade Medium Density wood Fiber (MDF).

The fixtures were designed in such a way that they could be assembled easily in a short period of time. Finally, the tubes were welded together using TIG welding to form the structural members of the spaceframe chassis

We first designed the mounts on Solidworks software of the following dimensions:

● Length= 30 mm

● Width= 30 mm

● Inner hole diameter= 6 mm

● Outer radius= 9 mm

Our idea was that these mounts would make it easy to attach various parts to the vehicle. We used 2mm thick steel to make the mounts and have embedded holes by laser cutting. We then welded the mounts at the required places using appropriate welding practices and safety precautions.

The mounts made have been attached using the welding method that is the Tungsten inert gas method.

After the final chassis has been made the whole chassis is powder-coated to prevent corrosion, chipping and fading.

After all the steps are completed the final chassis is ready.