College
College of Engineering and Polymer Science
Date of Last Revision
2025-04-26 12:09:25
Major
Mechanical Engineering
Honors Course
MECE 497
Number of Credits
2
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Date of Expected Graduation
Spring 2025
Abstract
The Society of Automotive (SAE) annually organizes collegiate design team competitions for university organizations nationwide. Baja SAE tasks teams comprised entirely of students with developing, iterating, manufacturing, testing, and competing with an offroad race buggy in accordance with all SAE regulations. Teams are responsible for producing a tech compliant vehicle for each competition season, travelling across the United States to put their designs to the test. In the 2022-2023 competition season, SAE introduced ruleset clarifications on the chassis manufacturing process, essentially mandating the production of all vehicle frames to be manufactured entirely in house with no external assistance. A chassis was produced for the 2023 and 2024 competition seasons, however due to the simultaneous addition of mandatory 4WD capabilities to the ruleset, Zips Baja was unable to modify the chassis design for manufacturable simplicity. This led to accuracy complications, wasted material, and ultimately a chassis that was designed to be professionally fabricated. For the 2024/2025 season, team members chose to overhaul the chassis design and manufacturing process entirely to promote a lighter, manufacturable, and structurally sound chassis. Lessons learned over 5 years of Zips Baja experience along with the implementation of cutting-edge fixturing technologies will be utilized to achieve this.
Research Sponsor
Kai J. Kwon
First Reader
Aaron Trexler
Second Reader
Bill Wenzel
Honors Faculty Advisor
Scott Sawyer
Proprietary and/or Confidential Information
No
Recommended Citation
Love, Alex and Scruppi, David, "Zips Baja Chassis Manufacturing Design" (2025). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 1956.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/1956
Included in
Computer-Aided Engineering and Design Commons, Manufacturing Commons, Other Mechanical Engineering Commons