Plastics

[imajerk]

Aluminium is used a lot in today's SAE cars... mostly for non-stressed devices. I was thinking that plastics could be used on things like restrictor/throttle body/throttle body diffuser and perhaps even things like peddle boxes. I've used polycarbonate a bit and it machines well, is half the density of carbon fibre - but twice the costhttp://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

There are many other plastics though (PVC) that could be used.

Has anyone got any experience with plastics on their cars.

Jerk.

[imajerk]

Aluminium is used a lot in today's SAE cars... mostly for non-stressed devices. I was thinking that plastics could be used on things like restrictor/throttle body/throttle body diffuser and perhaps even things like peddle boxes. I've used polycarbonate a bit and it machines well, is half the density of carbon fibre - but twice the costhttp://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

There are many other plastics though (PVC) that could be used.

Has anyone got any experience with plastics on their cars.

Jerk.

[terc04]

we have used plastics for a lot of intake parts on this year's car. It is cheap, machines quickly, and you can glue pieces on to for complex parts from simple pieces.

Tim
Mizzou Racing

[MikeWaggoner at UW]

Aluminum machines quickly and can be bonded also, and has a specific strength better than plastics... It seems like either composites or aluminum are better choices for almost any application on an FSAE car.

Western Washington University FSAE
dot.etec.wwu.edu/fsae

[jack]

...another advantage of composists is the amount of heat they can withstand compaired to plastics (although i suppose it does depend on what kind of plastic you use) on our car, there are some composite parts that would probably distort, if not catch on fire if they were made from pvc. of course we wouldnt replace those parts with plastics if they were used, but i guess what im trying to say is that why bother with plastics when parts can be made "better" and stronger from materials allready used and understood, with a negligable weight gain...i dunno much about materials though, can someone prove me wrong?? are there thermoplastics out there that can take heat like composites?

most important of all--carbon fiber looks really coolhttp://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

JACK
www.etec.wwu.edu (http://www.etec.wwu.edu)

[Charlie]

We've used plastics in the past for our intake, with mostly unfortunate results. If it is not stressed, plastics work well. But anything that takes vibration or stress should be designed accordingly, and that definition fits 99% of FSAE car parts.

-Charlie Ping
Auburn University FSAE 1999-present

[MikeWaggoner at UW]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jack:
amount of heat they can withstand compaired to plastics
"would probably distort, if not catch on fire if they were made from pvc."

with a negligable weight gain...i dunno much about materials though,

are there thermoplastics out there that can take heat like composites?

most important of all--carbon fiber looks really coolhttp://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

JACK
http://www.etec.wwu.edu<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jack. Shush! You're making us look bad.

PVC is flame retardant. It's got chlorine in it for chrissake!!!

Composites can't necessarily take heat. Sure, the glass or carbon can take heat, but most resin systems certainly can't. Furthermore, since all we have is composite intake, chassis, and other low temp components all this talk of taking the heat is nil.

Weight gain with composites? NO! That's why we use them even though they're slightly more expensive. They have a higher specific strength (strength v. weight) so we can make parts thinner and lighter. On a side note, it seems like unless you're thermoforming and bonding the plastics, the tooling for one-off's would actually be easier to make for composites...

Furthermore, if you keep on saying our car is badass and such, and we don't back it up (winning is VERY hard...), everyone will think we're braggart idiots.

Western Washington University FSAE
dot.etec.wwu.edu/fsae

[imajerk]

For myself, I'd like to use plastics a lot... but can't think of a spot that would save enough weight to go through the trouble of using plastic (besides intake). Maybe plastics just isn't for FSAEhttp://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif

Jerk.

[Eric Wort]

We've run a polyurethane intake and an SLA restrictor the last two years at competition without any problems.

We have had a few fuel related problems trying to use ABS plastic until we decided to put a protective coating on it. This year we're also doing the throttle body in ABS.

Eric Wort
UIUC Formula SAE (http://dilbert.cen.uiuc.edu/soc/sae/formula/)

[MikeWaggoner at UW]

How are you making your throttle body and intake? (Injection molding, forming, casting etc?). What type of plastic is SLA? (I'm not familiar with the acronym)

Western Washington University FSAE
dot.etec.wwu.edu/fsae

[Marc Jaxa-Rozen]

I believe SLA refers to stereolithography/rapid prototyping.

[jack]

...hey, i never said we were going to win, i just siad carbon looks cool... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gifhttp://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Eric Wort]

We've used injection molding off of SLA'd parts in the past. The department just obtained a new rapid prototyping machine that outputs in ABS plastic, so we're giving those parts a shot this year. We've done all of our intake parts(throttle body, restrictor, plenum, etc) on the ABS machine this year.

And yes, SLA refers to creating a rapid prototype with stereolithograpy. The end part is very hard and brittle, so we're attempting to get away from using those parts directly on the car.

Eric Wort
UIUC Formula SAE (http://dilbert.cen.uiuc.edu/soc/sae/formula/)

[jonny]

Has anyone made a composite throttle body before?? Cant seem to find any pics from the forum... WOuld think that it is feasible except for a few issues like how to secure air filters? And mounting of TPS.

[Kenny T Cornett]

http://www.carpages.co.uk/news/news-images/throttle-bodies13-05-05.jpg

Doesn't seem like too hard of a thing to make...

[Boston]

We make a Delrin sleeve to seal our Torsen.