Laser-Cut Car

Vanderbilt University · Fall 2022

Aaron Gothard, Saksham Sharma, Yilan Xu

Project Description

During our third semester at Vanderbilt University, myself and a group of other Mechanical Engineers competed to create the best car we could. It was a part of a competition amongst members of ME 2160: Intro to Mechanical Design, a class dedicated to teaching SolidWorks to Mechanical Engineering students. Our group, codenamed “Tres Leches”, competed to make the most compact, quick, and stylish car we could. How did we plan to accomplish this feat? We stole. We spent days searching for the coolest, fastest car on the market, and all roads led to one masterpiece of engineering and artistry: the 2016 Kia Soul. Once we had our idea, we began designing.

The Design

Though this was a straightforward project that could probably be finished in a few hours, our perfectionism kicked in. We went through multiple iterations of our design trying to get it as small and as speedy as possible. We designed our car in Solidworks (though much of the testing was done in AutoCAD because of its interface with our laser cutter). Our final version was as short and as narrow as it could possibly be without permanently disfiguring the parts required to make it move. We settled on a 4.55:1 gear ratio on the rear wheels with the ability for 4 wheel drive if we felt it necessary. I laser cut each piece out of 1/4” balsa wood and it assembled cleanly with a few dabs of glue.

The Wond’ry

Another goal of this project was to familiarize the young mechanical engineers with the services offered at the Wond’ry (since that was where the laser cutter was). One caveat: I was already employed at the Wond’ry’s Mechanical Makerspace. I ended up laser-cutting my car in addition to the entire rest of the class’s, and I was able to help my classmates by advising how to prepare their drawings (.dxf) files for laser-cutting.

Results

Test Day Came, and the class was abuzz. We lined up for our heat and were the quickest through the first round. Other groups had a diversity of results, with many being misalligned and steering to the left or right. We lined up for a second run against the fastest 8 cars: 2nd place. Unfortunate, but we left it all out there. The team who took first did not have any decorative panels and reduced their weight in order to use a smaller gear ratio. Once the competition was over, the real fun started: writing a full report of our work and design process furnished with individual drawings and renderings. Though the true project was small and minor, the fundamentals of the project is what sparked its inclusion on this list. We had to build and analyze and make detailed drawings and animations in SolidWorks, and it really allowed us to demonstrate all of the skills we’d gained over a full semester.