The students of ION Racing are returning from the Formula Student competition with excellent results and valuable experiences. The team of ambitious and talented students has collectively designed, developed, and built the race car named “Frøya.” The car has participated in Europe’s largest competition for engineering students. We at Glassfiber Produkter have been a key sponsor, contributing to the project.
Every year, Formula Student, Europe’s largest competition for engineering students, is held. The University of Stavanger participates annually with ION Racing, a team of skilled students from various study disciplines. Their mission is to design, develop, and build an electric Formula 1 car.
The competition takes place at the Silverstone Circuit in England, where the team competes against student teams from across Europe. The car is evaluated for both its static and dynamic characteristics before it is unleashed on the racing track.
Machining of Molds
The plan was to create the car’s body in carbon fiber, which required the students to have a mold to give the car its sleek appearance and desired properties. To achieve this, the search began for a partner who could assist them in this endeavor. That’s when the spotlight turned to Glassfiber Produkter, which, with our specialized expertise and large CNC machine, became the perfect partner and sponsor for the project.
The students wanted to create molds from MDF boards. Wood material is cost-effective, easy to work with, and with smooth surfaces, the boards can be easily glued together. The molds also needed to be reusable.
To meet the project’s demands, our team had to think differently.
“The project was a golden opportunity to experiment with what the CNC machine can do. Our CNC operators now have valuable experience that we can use in the future with other clients.”
– Magnar Stangeland
For our team, this project required thinking differently. In terms of production, this meant new ways to program the CNC machine, while also finding the right tools to achieve the best results.
The material is machined into parts that become the molds for the body and aeropackage.
Meeting with the students at UiS.
Europe’s Largest Engineering Competition
The time had come, the car had been tested more thoroughly than ever before, and ION Racing set course for Silverstone, where the team would compete against over 130 teams from around the world.
Frøya is carefully evaluated by the judges in Silverstone. Photo: ION Racing.
Frøya passed the technical inspections in record time, scoring highly in the static components. The positive feedback encompassed engineering work, design, as well as economics and business.
However, when it came time to put the dynamics to the test on the racing track, things didn’t go as planned. The battery of the electric car failed, leaving it stranded at the starting line.
But the skilled team did not let this overshadow their earlier achievements in the competition and emphasized their satisfaction with what they had accomplished.
What the students have learned from this year’s competition has laid a strong foundation for next year’s ION Racing contribution.
“We also received a lot of praise for the car from other teams, especially the body that was molded using the molds we had machined at Glassfiber Produkter.”
– Einar Kjerka, head of production, ION Racing
Glassfiber Produkter is proud of the excellent collaboration and the unique opportunity to work on something a bit out of the ordinary. With new expertise and experience, the possibilities of what we can achieve are even greater, and we look forward to more exciting collaborations in the future.
