Racing innovations
18 January 2012
The Michigan State University Formula Racing team received a generous $27k donation of tooling board from Trelleborg Offshore for use on the body of its new race car.
Trelleborg donated the aerospace grade material to the university team, making it a platinum sponsor of the team’s race car.
James Vultaggio, Vice President Innovation and Technology at Trelleborg Offshore, commented: “We have a long history of supplying high performance tooling board to professional race teams, including Formula 1, and so when we were given the opportunity to help the formula racing students by donating our material and educating them on its uses, we jumped at the chance to get involved.
“It’s important that organizations, such as Trelleborg, invest in the engineers of the future and begin to build strong relationships early on in their careers. In fact, in previous years we have even gone on to hire formula race team students as interns at the company.”
The team represents Michigan State University’s entry into the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) collegiate design series, a competition sanctioned by the Society of Automotive Engineers. The innovative program promotes innovation and education by challenging students to fund, design, manufacture and race small, open-wheel race cars. As part of the program, underclassmen on the team reach out to university alumni and organizations, like Trelleborg, for donations and consulting as required over the course of the year.
The Trelleborg tooling boards have been used by Michigan State's FSAE team to construct the outer body panels of the race car, including its side pods and nose cone. The boards were assembled by the team and then machined to an exact outline of the body profile. From there, the team used the boards to mold carbon fiber composite body panels which were used on the outer race car.
Vultaggio continued: “I have received some great feedback from the team, they placed 15th overall and finished all of the events – a great accomplishment. Even better, the car ran fantastically well and they were told numerous times that the car had the best looking body in the paddock.”
Trelleborg wants to extend its congratulations to Michigan State University for a job well done this year and looks forward to working with MSU next year along with other young engineers in expanding their knowledge on composite materials and applications.