Using Technology to Build Solar

Feature
Feature
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Schwartz, Colfax High School
Using Technology to
Build Solar-Powered
Drag Racers
By Jerry Fireman
The Colfax High
School Design Tech
program incorporates
both academic
instruction and
practical use of
advanced technology
to prepare students
for the wide range
of occupations that
involve working
with metal, wood,
computers and
electronics.
40 Techniques October 2012
S
tudents at Colfax High School
in Colfax, California, apply
academic learning, develop
flexible thinking and acquire
marketable skills in the school’s Design
Tech program. Thirty students rotate
through four classes—metal shop, wood
shop, computers and electronics—spending four-and-a-half weeks in each discipline. In each of these classes they contribute to their final project—a solar-powered
drag racer featuring a metal chassis,
custom-made circuit board, student-designed sticker package and a molded wood
body. The students learn to use advanced
manufacturing technology like a computer numerical control (CNC) router that is
used to build the wooden body as well as
a CNC plasma cutter that is used to build
the metal chassis of the drag racer. Near
the end of the class, students and their
cars face off in a school-wide race.
A Unique Technical
Education Program
Traditional vocational training courses
like wood and metal shop focus on preparing students for careers like cabinetmakers, machinists and auto mechanics.
Today’s working world offers a much
more varied range of technical and vocational careers, but whether traditional or
new, these careers do have one thing in
common. They all require the ability to
use advanced technology tools in order to
succeed and advance. The Colfax High
School Design Tech program incorporates both academic instruction and
• Just exactly how do the pieces
fit together?
• How does the user hold the product?
• How does it fit in with other products
it is to be used with?
Metal Shop Technology
practical use of advanced technology to
prepare students for the wide range of
occupations that involve working with
metal, wood, computers and electronics.
The students can aim for some of the less
traditional technical or vocational careers
like jewelry making, repairing ski lifts,
designing green buildings and building
robots. “Our vision is to engage all students in applied learning,” says Jonathan
Schwartz who teaches the Design Tech
course. “Students have the opportunity
to imagine, design and make something
while applying academic principles
learned in science, math, English or any
subject.”
Wood Shop Technology
Colfax High School has used two of
Techno Inc.’s LC CNC routers for several
years in its wood shop program. Students
use computer-aided design (CAD) software to define the geometry of their projects to extremely high levels of accuracy
and detail. The software allows them to
also zoom in and out on their projects and
view them from any angle. After they are
satisfied with the design, the students convert the geometry into a CNC program
and download it to the router, which
then produces the design by removing
material from a block of wood or plastic.
The resulting accuracy is far greater than
the student could have achieved by using
traditional hand or power tools. Building
a prototype also forces the students to resolve issues that would be too easy to gloss
over in a computer model, such as:
www.acteonline.org
The solar-powered drag racer project
is interesting because it utilizes the full
range of technologies taught in the Design
Tech program. As stated earlier, students
rotate through four classes: electronics,
wood shop, metal shop and computers. In
each class they work on a contribution to
their drag racer. In the wood shop class
for example, students use CAD software
to design the body of their car and a toolbox. Then they use the CNC router along
with a table saw, band saw and sanders to
build the car body and toolbox.
Creating the metal chassis of the drag
racer involves cutting-edge technology.
The school purchased a CNC plasma
cutter from the same manufacturer that
provides the CNC routers. The plasma
cutter cuts steel and other materials with
a plasma torch. The torch blows a gas at
high speed out of a nozzle while an electrical arc is formed through that gas from
the nozzle to the surface being cut. The
energy begins to break apart the gas molecules. The electrons separate from the
nucleus, forming a type of matter called
plasma. When the fast-moving electrons
collide with other electrons and ions, they
release large amounts of energy. This energy is what gives plasma its unique status
and amazing cutting power. The plasma
is sufficiently hot to melt the metal being
cut and moves fast enough to blow molten
metal away from the cut. A plasma cutter
can pass through metals with little or no
resistance.
The CNC plasma cutter is easy for
the students to learn because it uses the
same industry standard G-code files used
for programming most CNC machines.
G-code is a language used to control the
motion of computerized machine tools,
which in turn determines the geometry
www.acteonline.org
Rosie Ororzco using the Techno LC CNC router.
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Schwartz, Colfax High School
Design Tech instructor Jonathan Schwartz and student
Christian Topper building components of a drag racer.
Photos courtesy of Christian Kinsey, Colfax High School
One of the race cars with
the body removed.
The same race car with
the body attached.
41
October 2012 Techniques Feature
of the parts they produce. The machine’s
automatic torch height control helps
maintain cut quality on both thicker and
thinner materials.
Not Just for Cars
Caitie Pedersen, a former student at
Colfax High School, used the CNC
router to make Corian® molds that
she used to design chocolate bars.
“I made candy bars with the school
name on it,” Pedersen said. Pedersen
is currently going to culinary school
and planning to be a pastry chef.
She sees the potential for starting
a business based on making the
chocolate bars and other types of
candy to customer specifications.
The customers could submit either
sketches or their own designs in the
form of CAD files. Pedersen would
then use the router to cut a mold
that exactly matches the customer’s
design. “The CNC router greatly
reduces the cost of making custom
food designs,” Pedersen added.
“As a result, it should open up the
potential for people to create many
interesting new businesses.”
Race to the Finish
In addition to the CNC plasma cutter,
students use the drill press and various
hand tools to create the metal chassis,
display stands and a tool tray. Students
learn how to solder and build the circuit
boards in the electronics section of the
class. After the students complete all four
sections of the class and build their racers, they race their cars against the other
students.’ The cars are also judged based
on their creativity, color schemes, body
design and workmanship. Approximately
120 cars compete against each other and
are judged for the final event.
“Technology is becoming increasingly
important to a wide range of industries
and careers, and knowledge of technology
is also important in starting many types of
businesses,” Schwartz said. “That’s why we
have done a complete makeover on the traditional metal shop, wood shop and other
vocational training classes. Our classes
combine the academics needed for students
to understand the technology with practical skills that are essential for success in a
wide range of careers and businesses. Using
the same brand of equipment for routing
and plasma cutting gives us great consistency throughout our shop. The equipment is
very easy to use and rugged, which makes
it ideal for use in the educational environment. Yet we also have the accuracy to
produce industrial-quality products, so in
many cases, our students will be using the
same equipment on the job.”
Jerry Fireman is the president of Structured
Information (www.strucinfo.com) and has spent 30
years writing about technology. He can be reached at
jerry_fireman@strucinfo.com.
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October 2012 Techniques