Formula SAE Accumulator Container

This page details the design of an accumulator container that integrates easily with surrounding vehicle components & has a quick, easy installation process. Vehicles from previous years had successful battery packs that brought the team to win FSAE championships. This project builds on that knowledge to design a battery pack that fixes core problems with historic container designs. A major issue was install time and complexity. Past designs failed to account for interactions with nearby components as well as hand clearances during install. The goal of this design work is to make the pack effective and serviceable.

The challenging part of the design process was balancing FSAE rules, manufacturing constraints, package tolerance stacks & structural load requirements to create one effective solution. This work builds on the previous year’s design for an effective enclosure while optimizing for attributes such as ease of install, installation time, manufacturing accuracy, and interaction with critical components. This is done by designing for tool and hand access, using creative sheet metal design techniques, and ensuring proper design tolerances on top of designing for the required structural loading.

This design work decreased installation time by 87.5% (from 40 minutes to ~5 minutes) & Accumulator Container(AC) met all keep-out zone & rules requirements. Additionally, ~5kg of mass was saved compared to previous designs.