A Tailor-Made Multifunction Cart for a Student Engineering Competition

The Alérion Supermileage team from Université Laval opted for a modular Flexpipe cart that can be used as a transport cart, but also as a tool box and work table.

Alérion Supermileage is a science and engineering student project based at Université Laval in Quebec. Its mandate is to design, design and manufacture a prototype vehicle with the best possible energy efficiency.

Needing a transport system for their vehicle during competitions, the Alérion Supermileage team called on Flexpipe to build their custom cart. The new cart made of tubes and connector joints could therefore be used as a worktable for adjustments to the vehicle, a toolbox in addition to a transport cart, responding to a lack observed by the team during the previous competition.

The 3D concept of the trolley was produced using SolidWorks software, using the parts library provided by Flexpipe. A first version of the design could be shared with the experts at Flexpipe to validate the structure and discuss the modifications to be made. The slides used come from another partner, the biggest difficulty encountered was to install them to the tube structure during assembly.

These slides had to be attached by a fixing system which was not possible to use with the tubes. The students had to cut and bend some pieces of metal as well as make new holes in order to attach them to the tubes using the slide extension support pieces.

In the 2023 SAE Supermileage competition, the Alérion Supermileage team took first place in the gasoline-powered prototype standings. Congratulations to all!