Goodfellow shows its 'metal' in German bid for solar car glory

Goodfellow, an advanced metal and material supplier, is throwing its technical expertise behind the ambitious attempt to travel over 3000km – from Darwin to Adelaide – in a fully electric, solar powered car.

Located at the Technical University of Munich, the Lux025 will be capable of a top speed of 130km/hr, with the plan being to maintain a high average speed with limited battery storage.

The engineering team turned to Goodfellow to source the crucial polyaramid honeycomb that has been used to build the sandwich structure of the outer shell of the solar car. This is an extremely important material as it provides high strength and stiffness whilst being low in weight.

“Motorsport and academia are two of our biggest markets and we have built up some very exciting relationships in these spaces,” explained Dr Aphrodite Tomou, Technical Manager at Goodfellow.

“That’s why we were so excited to be involved in TUfast Eco’s latest challenge to travel 3000km across the outback in Australia. We relish the opportunity to identify the right material and the right post processing options to deliver exactly what companies, universities and teams need to push the boundaries of innovation.

“Having spoken with engineers in the team, we ratified their decision to go for Polyaramid and were able to supply the material in the desired quantities and in the timeframe required.”

She continued: “This is a real test of endurance, technology and teamwork and we wish them all the best for when the event kicks-off in August (24th-31st).”

TUfast Eco, located at the Technical University of Munich, is a cross-cultural and multi-disciplined team of motivated students. Together, they strive to push the boundaries of more sustainable transport by conceptualising, developing, and manufacturing a highly efficient solar car to compete in global solar automotive competitions.

By innovating and pushing technological limits, the team achieves extreme performance, all with the help of cutting-edge technology which offers wide-ranging applications to real-life mobility problems.

Whilst this is the first time it will be competing in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, TUfast Eco has already smashed two Guinness World Records - first for ‘Most Efficient Electric Vehicle’ in 2016 and, more recently, for ‘Greatest Distance Driven by an Electric Vehicle on a Single Charge (non-solar)’, which at 2573.79km destroyed the previous record of 1608.54km.

“We are really pleased to have Goodfellow as a critical material supplier and sponsor, joining the likes of Agile Robots, Audi and Solidworks,” added TUfast Eco team’s Vince Bartok.

“It has been very responsive to our requests and has delivered a lot of technical advice that has helped us make subtle changes that will improve performance and continue to set new records.”