Year 1 Bachelor of Engineering students produced and demonstrated a range of Rubber-Band powered cars recently, as part of a practical project undertaken for WelTec’s Engineering Design & Drawing paper.

Taken as part of the first year of the Bachelor of Engineering Technology (BEngTech), the project incorporated design; production; testing; and analysis of performance and design.

Students had to:

• Design a rubber band powered car
• Produce drawings
• Use a laser-cutter &/or workshop tools to make the car parts
• Assemble a working vehicle
• Run the car up a ramp and along a track

The class collectively scored each design out of five on:

• Style – how cool it looked running on the track
• Creativity – how unique it was
• Distance travelled
• Design quality
• Build quality
• Asethics
• Reliability

Incorporated into each design was a data-logger which recorded the acceleration of the car. The students also recorded the weight of each vehicle and the number and size of rubber bands used in each design. This data was then carried through to be used as part of the students’ Engineering Computing course.

The final part of the project was a presentation and report of the outcomes of their project.