BAT MO -NWU’s solar car

Science & Environment,Oct 4 2012 9:49AM

 

NWU’s solar car success

Thabo Rantlha  

North West University (NWU) Potchefstroom Campus Engineering students became the toast of the province and South Africa in making history when their debut solar car won the Olympia Class with Japan’s Tokai University the overall winner in the Sasol Solar Challenge.

The group of eight students were part of 12 teams competing against each other including South Africa, Japan and India, in an event that sent competitors on an 11-day, 5200km journey. All the vehicles had to be solar powered and maintain an average 60km/h speed. They left Pretoria, and made their way to Cape Town driving back alongside the shore, then up to Pietermaritzburg to cross the finish line in Pretoria.The Japanese top the world in solar rankings. The NWU broke two national and international records for the longest distance travelled in one day using sun power and were awarded the gold medal and the Africa Spirit award for their safety record.The NWU’s so-called batmo, was powered by the amount of energy found in a radio controlled aeroplane engine, to reach an unbelievable speed of 110km/h.It only weighs 280kg and can give a few commercial vehicles a run for their money on the pull-away, moving from 0 to 100km/h in only seven seconds.The vehicle, according to the team leader and lecturer, Prof Albert Helberg, was built mainly from carbon fibre and resin. It is much lighter, but seven times stronger than steel.“It has a hefty price tag at R750000, but it was one of the cheapest manufactured vehicles in the competition. The Japanese spent more than $2m (R16.8) to manufacture their car. We are grateful to the Technology Innovation Agency who sponsored us with R330000.” “We implemented world class sailplane technology for the aerodynamics of the vehicle and knew that we had a winning recipe.“We had to develop a first-of-its-kind engine and gearbox. It prepares the market for a higher level of technology. I believe we will see the first commercial solar powered vehicles on our roads as early as 2017,” said Helberg.He said they started constructing the vehicle in June with a large flat surface housing the sun panels slightly thicker than a piece of paper, which store about 1.2kW of energy in a battery and drive the two hub engines.“The NWU’s project forms part of a first-year students’ project that will from next year be rolled out to a postgraduate project, with more innovative research.“The batmobile will now be used as a pilot project to inspire the development of a better car.“This will be used to compete in the World Solar Competition that takes place in Australia next year,” said NWU university communications officer, Johan van Zyl.

thabor@thenewage.co.za

original: http://www.thenewage.co.za/64483-1021-53-NWUs_solar_car_success
reproduced without changes

Innovation is thriving at NWU

Innovation could be the gateway towards a better future in South Africa. New and better products, improved services, and ground-breaking new methods could be the driver of wealth if harnessed and developed.  Innovation can also lead to new businesses and improved employment opportunities.

Engineering students and staff at the North-West University are collaborating with companies on a number of high-tech projects, developing new products and solving difficult problems. The aim is to make South African companies more competitive and profitable, by leveraging the expertise available at the university, and unlocking the potential of post-graduate students.

The Innovation Support Office in the faculty of Engineering at the Potchefstroom campus employs a team of dedicated project managers that assists companies in identifying suitable government funding support programmes; assist in writing project proposals and managing projects towards successful completion. The Innovation support office also helps companies in identifying expertise at universities, and can help in building networks of expertise in order to solve multidisciplinary industrial problems.

For example: Students from the North West University, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and the University of Pretoria, are now part of a unique research team that is supporting development work  in collaboration with Denel Aviation. In the same way, groups of engineers, researchers and students are collaborating with companies as diverse as Necsa, MTech Industrial, and numerous small businesses.

André Hattingh from the Innovation Support Office at the Faculty of Engineering, NWU, says the Engineering Faculty received around R32 million from the government to support various industry initiated projects. The Technology and Human Resource for Industry Programme (THRIP) was specifically developed by the government to promote cooperation between universities and the industry. The purpose of this funding is to tackle projects of which research inputs can be beneficial to the different industries. Cooperation is therefore mutually beneficial for universities as well as for the company because our postgraduate students get research opportunities, and the company can implement the expertise gained from it.

One of the main benefits for a company to collaborate in state sponsored programmes such as THRIP is that it can develop a long-term strategic relationship with a university research group, leading to a continued output of ideas, educated students, and artefacts. Dedicated laboratories, with expensive test and measurement equipment can also be developed that can support both strategic directed research as well as blue sky research. The research done in a THRIP project usually leads to a prototype which could then be further developed by using one of the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) support programmes.

André Hattingh

The Innovation support office currently manages more than seventeen projects. More than eighty students from different universities are financially supported and more than twenty companies are involved. Most of these students are post-graduate students, working on industry linked projects. Students working on these projects acquire relevant skills because of the continual technology transfer between university and industry and are more ready for the place of work after graduating.

For more info contact André Hattingh at 018 299 4023, 0833778581 agh@mweb.co.za

2013/06/03 

See original news article at:
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-05-31-00-innovation-in-action-at-nwu
http://potchnews.nwu.ac.za/n/126

Innovation and Commercialization at NWU Engineering Faculty

Here at the Innovation Support Office (ISO) at the NWU Faculty of Engineering, we are excited to announce this new blog. NWU has been in the news regularly.  It is our intention to feature all our projects on this blog. Here you will be able to read about our successes and some news snippets. Please come back to read more!