3/15/2008

Our team recently completed one of the toughest battles of our manufacturing process, the creation of our carbon fiber chassis. Our composite monocoque was done in two cures. We first cured the outer layers of carbon fiber in an autoclave. We then layed up aluminum honeycomb and the inner layers of carbon fiber on top of that for the second cure. Unfortunately when our chassis went back in the autoclave and was pressurized, some of our honeycomb crushed which ended up forcing our team to redo the 17 straight hours of work necessary to complete the second layup of our chassis. This was very disheartening. However, our team pulled together to do another layup and successfully cured the chassis in less than two weeks. Here are some pictures of our chassis: