LEAF1 F1 in schools 2022/2023 Season Upload

WORK IN PROGRESS - MORE DETAILS TO COME IN THE FOLLOWING DAYS

Hi!

We are LEAF1, an F1 in schools team from Canterbury, England, with a focus on remaining both Sustainable, and Open Source as we compete within the competition. 

F1 in schools is the largest STEM competition in the world, with thousands of competing secondary school aged teams competing from across the globe, in which teams design, test and manufacture a small car, which is propelled by a CO2 Canister down a 20m Track. To find out more about the competition, click here: 

• Website: https://www.f1inschools.co.uk 
• Technical Regulations (Pro Class): https://www.f1inschools.co.uk/uploads/1/1/8/9/118908723/f1_in_schools_technical_regulations_2022-2023_professional.pdf 
• Enterprise Regulations (Pro Class): https://www.f1inschools.co.uk/uploads/1/1/8/9/118908723/f1_in_schools_competition_regulations_2022-2023_dev_pro.pdf 

As a team, we competed in the UK, with the London South for Regionals, and attending the National Finals at the NEC Centre in Birmingham. We have won several awards, from team identity award, to the best engineered car award, and are continuously looking to improve. 

As part of our Open Source Ethos, this post is the uploading of ALL of our CAD, CAM, CFD and Portfolio Files for future teams, or simply those who are interested in finding out more, to explore, learn from and maybe inspire to join the competition themselves! 

Document Navigation: 

The files are organised by a simple system, to make it as easy as possible for you to navigate between everything: 

Firstly, files are split into our 2 submissions, Regional Finals, and National Finals. 

Regional Finals: 

CAD

• ‘LEAF1 Concept’ 1-6: These are early development CAD files, lacking constraints in many cases, and not all being manufacturable. PROCEED WITH CAUTION! Refer to our Simscale Pages to view the aerodynamic developments of these concepts. (
• LEAF1 Regional Finals Car': This is our final car that was raced at the regional finals. 

1. It is (for the most part) fully constrained, using parameters wherever possible, Zac (Our Design & Manufacturing Engineer) is continuing to improve his ability to make fully constrained, upgradeable designs, and this represented a major step forwards in this
2. The Wheel Design uses a singular polymer bearing. Both the end cap & Outer wheel are printed with a 0.25mm nozzle, in Polyterra PLA. Bearing link: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/ball-bearings/1257921 
3. The Front Wing acts both as a wheel support structure, and a nose cone/wing assembly. It has multiple modifiers throughout it (use of the .3mf file is recommended), and is printed with a 0.25mm nozzle, in PVB. 
4. The Rear Wing & Rear Wheel Support Structure need to be adhered to the main body with an adhesive. 
5. MAIN BODY CNC WORK: We used the F1 in schools standard model block for this, but anything stronger would work very well. 4 tooling operations are needed, one for each side of the car, and for CNC work use the ‘LEAF1 Regional Finals CNC’ File, using a ¼" Ball Nose endmill, and requires the specialised bracket sold by F1 in schools to mill the rear end of the car. For more details use the guide listed later in this description. 
6. NAVIGATION OF THE FILE: 

• ‘Extra Components’ contains parts that aren't on the final car, such as the model block & the No-Go Zones from the technical regulations. 
• ‘LEAF1 Regional Finals 2022 Car’ contains all Car parts. Within it are several sub-components: 

1. Wheels - contains all wheel parts
2. Main Body
3. Rear Wing - contains both rear wing, and rear wheel support structure
4. Front Wing
5. Car for Rendering - contains the car body with decals & textures applied
6. Car for CFD - contains a singular, simplified body which is used for Simscale
7. Car for Component Identification - Used in Engineering Drawings

• The timeline is grouped into several categories to make finding specific operations easier
• Some Decals are glitched within Fusion 360, simply re-apply them if any visual imperfections are present
• Parameters can be edited under the ‘Change Parameters’ function within the modify set of tools, the logo looks like an ‘fx’. Some small edits will work, however drastic changes to some parameters might cause several timeline operations to fail. PROCEED WITH CAUTION 

Portfolios: 

• Enterprise: this is a submitted element, which outlines project management, sponsorship, outreach, digital media & social media. This won the Portfolio Award at the London South Regional Finals in 2022. 
• Engineering: this is a submitted element, which documents the development of the car itself. This outlines CAD work, CFD Testing, CAM work, as well as other finishing processes used. 
• Engineering Drawings: this is a submitted element, which is used to scrutineer the car, ensuring it fits the technical regulations, and is also used to judge the quality of renders. Our compliance with all regulations, and quality of drawings, meant that we won the Fastest Car & Best Engineered Car at the London South Regional Finals in 2022. 

Car Assembly Documents: 

Wheel Assembly: COMING SOON

Whole Car Assembly: COMING SOON

CNC Guide: COMING SOON

3D Printing Guide: COMING SOON 

NATIONAL FINALS 2023: 

CAD 

• ‘LEAF1 National Finals Car’ is our final car, as raced at the 2023 UK National finals. It contains several improvements over our previous car: 

1. Reparability: The car is significantly easier to repair, not utilising ANY adhesives, instead relying on friction fit assemblies, as well as a complex thread mechanism within the wheel. This meant that Zac (Our Design & Manufacturing Engineer) could repair the car in-between track runs, which proved invaluable during racing, as our wheels had overtightened during scrutineering, and after repair saw track times reduce by 0.5 seconds. 
2. Rolling Resistance: The Wheel support system is now significantly more complex, utilising 2 smaller, full ceramic bearings, which have a far lower friction than the previous polymer bearing. Furthermore, the use of a ‘sandwiching’ design, which holds each side of the bearing in place, relative to the main body and the wheel itself, means that any side-to-side play is negated, ensuring that the wheel exclusively span in the forwards direction, reducing the friction with the track. 

Bearings Link: https://www.smbbearings.com/products/zro2-ceramic-bearings.html  We used CCZR-684 

1. Manufacturability: The main body can now be CNC machined with only 2 operations, reducing the tolerance issues faced when rotating the block 3 times, like was required previously. 
2. Aerodynamics: The car now has a significantly more streamlined body shape, that was achieved entirely parametrically, not requiring the use of form tool, which would make iterative design difficult. Instead, extensive use of lofts, sweeps and 3d sketches were used. 

Navigation of the File

• ‘Model Block’ contains the CNC stock form, which the car main body is machined from
• ‘No Go Zones' contains regulation defined areas that mustn't be exceeded, or have to be enclosed
• ‘Car Concept 1’ contains all the car parts, organised as written below:

1. Wheels - defined by a combination of letters. RL = Rear Left, FL = Front Left, RR = Rear Right, FR = Front Right
2. Main Body
3. Rear Wing 
4. Front Wing
5. CFD Export - contains a singular body, only half the car, which can be exported as a .STEP file for CFD Simulations
6. Rendering Car - contains main body, front wing, rear wing and other miscellaneous decals which are a realistic representation of the final car. To view it properly, hide the standard Main Body, Front Wing & Rear Wing, but leave the wheel components viewable

• The timeline is grouped into several categories to make finding specific operations easier
• Some Decals are glitched within Fusion 360, simply re-apply them if any visual imperfections are present
• Parameters can be edited under the ‘Change Parameters’ function within the modify set of tools, the logo looks like an ‘fx’. Some small edits will work, however drastic changes to some parameters might cause several timeline operations to fail. PROCEED WITH CAUTION 

Portfolios: 

• Enterprise: this is a submitted element, which outlines project management, sponsorship, outreach, digital media & social media. This won the Portfolio Award at the London South Regional Finals in 2022. 
• Engineering: this is a submitted element, which documents the development of the car itself. This outlines CAD work, CFD Testing, CAM work, as well as other finishing processes used. This won the Portfolio Award at the London South Regional Finals in 2022. 
• Engineering Drawings: this is a submitted element, which is used to scrutineer the car, ensuring it fits the technical regulations, and is also used to judge the quality of renders. Our compliance with all regulations, and quality of drawings earnt us full marks in the scrutineering section. 

CFD Simulations: 

• ALL of our major iterations of CFD simulations can be found online through simscale. We are in the process of organising these files to be more intuitive, but feel free to look at the raw data in the meantime: 
• Regionals: https://www.simscale.com/users/18zsmith/#viewMode=thumbView&sortBy=project_popular 
• Nationals: https://www.simscale.com/users/Cyclone_F1_Team/#viewMode=thumbView&sortBy=project_popular 

Pit Display: 

For The National Finals, we designed & built a pit display to show off our brand identity, and some of the engineering innovations we made. 

• Walkthrough Video: 

Our Tour is at 30:40

Overall Competition Highlights:

Files: 

The CAD & Graphic Design Files can be found under the Pit Display Folder. To get the .dxf outlines, add a sketch on a face, then export it as a .dxf file. 

Contact Details: 

If you have any questions about the car, want advice, or are interested in supporting our campaign for entering into the 2024 Regional Finals, Contact us below: 

• Sponsorship: [email protected]
• Outreach & Partnerships: [email protected]
• Engineering Enquiries: [email protected]