Week 2

This week I helped create and weld the bumper of the car. The purpose of the bumper is to protect the vehicle from taking damage if a collision were to occur and as part of the SAE safety protocol a bumper is required for all vehicles. The bumper for our vehicle was made out of 1.25 inch steel tubing in order to conserve weight, but to maximize efficiency and strength. We started out by cutting a long piece of steel tubing using the band saw. The band saw is a very high powered saw used to cut tubing and uses liquid coolant to prevent the saw from overheating and to cut the tube more precisely. After this we had to use the coping saw to smoothen out the edges because the band saw although precise leaves very rough edges.

Coping Saw

 The coping saw leaves a smooth edge that provides the best surface to weld onto. Next we had to bend the metal into the shape of the bumper.

Tube Bender

We then had to angle both ends and make sure they aligned together. According to the Mini Baja SAE rules a 7/8 tube should be able to fit between the bumper and the main frame of the car. After making sure the bumper was up to regulation it was time to weld the bumper. Then the teams welder welded the bumper on and all that was left was to make sure it was up to par. Once the engineering lead checked that the bumper was good we were good to go.

Finished bumper