Mechanical marvels at contest
TEAMS were instructed to design a vehicle powered by mousetraps provided by the organisers, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
Though seemingly difficult, first year engineering students from the University of Southampton Malaysia Campus made the best mousetrap car during the Mechanical Career Fair Competition.
The winning team comprising Woon Tyen Likh, Ow Zheng Yang and Lee Kean Wee created a mousetrap car with a very unassuming exterior which could cover a distance of two metres in 1.16 seconds.
Building a vehicle that will travel an eight-metre distance through obstacles in the shortest amount of time was the team’s main objective. “All of the competing teams used the same mousetrap.
The mousetrap’s spring cannot be altered or heat treated.
“Designing and creating something unique using very similar specs was a real challenge for us,” said Woon, a mechanical engineering student.
Based on the contest’s objectives, the team made some careful design considerations which involved adjustments with the mousetrap’s lever, the vehicle’s wheel, as well as choosing balsa wood, a material used for glider planes, for its mainframe.
“The length of the lever is an important aspect in whether the car is suitable for distance or speed.
“In our case, a shorter lever arm was the best way to adapt a mousetrap car for speed,” said fellow mechanical engineering student Lee.
For the vehicle to pick up speed, the team had to wrap its rear wheels with rubber material. Since cost was also factored in the design, the team repurposed readilyavailable materials such as old ballpoint pens, glue, shoe laces, as well as the balloons used recently at the university’s open day. In the end, the team spent RM25 on the model car. ‘’Our earlier experiments were unsuccessful.
‘’We worked for several days to find out how short we could get the lever while maintaining control of the car as well as which string would give the best performance,” said aeronautics student Ow.
Another Southampton team with first year mechanical students Lim Si Zhe, Weldon Wong Kai Yoong and Jayewardene Vinura Rogitha, won third place in the competition. They were part of the 100 students who took part in the competition.