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UC Berkeley Mechanical Engineering Department

American Society of Mechanical Engineers at UC Berkeley


April 19 - May 2 2004

The last two weeks at Cal SMV...

We finished up the new female mold, sanding her down to 1500, fixing a hole in the back and applying wax in anticipation of a carbon layup.

On the bottom fairing we have been working on building up the back rear fork by sanding blue foam to fit.

After cutting out another design for the windshield, we attempted to heat form it to the car using direct heat form heat guns, which didn't go well. After deciding that simultaneous heat over the entirety of the windshield would solve some of the problems encountered during the pervious attempt, we built an oven using the old top female mold. Next we discovered the boiling water worked well in forming the acrylite, and thus attempted a vacuum/water forming.

After a lot of sanding and several layups, we finished the carbon beam for the axle bar.

New female mold sanded to 1500

Lighting up the old car

Laying up the carbon axle beam

The blue foam for the rear fork

Designing the windshield, part II

Filling the hole in the tale of the new female mold

Attempting to heat form the windshield

Drilling the holes for the heat gun oven

Preparing the oven

Oven activated

Preparing water heat form the windshield

Boiling water

Water heat forming

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