Prototype Fitment Design

Our first technology session back from the holidays,we decided to attempt fitting the proto-type to a vehicle. In the morning, we had a pre-arranged meeting with Prabhat to discuss our action plan and also to make arrangements to use the workshop and scope equipment to assist us with our practical work. Our meeting was very useful as prabhat pointed out some key obstacles that we might encounter during our investigation and made suggestions about how we could think of ways to overcome these issues. 

Figure - 1: Proposed fitment area

Key areas raised in the discussion included:

• Finding an appropriate mounting location
• Using an effective device mounting/fitting method
• The type of linkage to be used to firmly connect the permanent magnet of the device to the suspension system in such a way that allows for optimum suspension movement transfer to the device

Our objective today was to workout a method of mounting the generator device into the car and testing its output. We were able to identify possible fitment locations, though we found that most of the locations were not so suitable due to the limited space in the suspension area.

After further consideration, we decided to fit the generator inside the boot area, and to the top of the rear suspension. We noticed that mounting the device to the front suspension was improbable as the front wheels incorporate too much lateral wheel movements in order to steer the vehicle. The device is better located  at the rear suspension as the rear wheels are fixed. 

Figure - 3: Final fitment location for generator

Figure - 2: Rod end (rotor) fixed to suspension