Corporate Information

[10.07.09]

Bosch Rexroth sponsors Young Engineer Competition

Bosch Rexroth co-sponsors The Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) ‘Young Engineer’ Competition – challenging students to design and build a battery-powered vehicle which is able to climb up a ramp.

Following the success of last year’s event, The Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) annual ‘Young Engineer’ Competition was once again co-sponsored by Bosch Rexroth. In keeping with the vehicle performance theme, the 2009 contest was held at the Jaguar plant in Castle Bromwich with four agricultural colleges taking part and the students incorporating the design project as part of their ongoing studies.

The competition itself requires the students to design and build a battery-powered vehicle to climb up a ramp with an ever-increasing gradient. The winner is the vehicle that manages to climb the highest up the ramp. A cash prize fund of £1300, underwritten by IAgrE, was available for distribution at the judges’ discretion and alongside Rexroth, the other sponsor was Autoguide Equipment who supplied the ramp and laser measuring system. The continued support of the sponsors, despite the tough economic conditions, demonstrates their commitment to investing in the future of engineering.

The rules of the competition are simple; the vehicle has to be no larger than 320mm by 200mm, must be powered by a 12V battery and use up to four wheels – all traction effort must be supplied through the wheels and derived from the battery. Upon registration, a kit of four wheels and a battery was supplied to the entrants free of charge.

As in previous competitions the field was divided into two classes based upon whether the team had used the material supplied along with dimensional constraints (classified) or had augmented their design with a few additional devices (unclassified).

Four agricultural colleges supplied the 11 entrants to the competition, these being Brooksby Melton College (Melton Mowbray), Myerscough College (Preston), Plumpton College (Sussex) and Reaseheath College (Nantwich).

The ramp itself is similar in gradient to a skateboard quarter pipe. To one side is a tape measure and on the other a laser beam showing the height mark across the ramp. The teams are asked where they want the mark placed and the vehicle then has to climb up the ramp and break the beam. The rules are akin to the high jump where teams are allowed three attempts to make the initial height of their choosing and once successful they can choose the next heights up to a maximum of three.

The vehicles varied immensely in their design, some were small and direct drive with huge amounts of acceleration while others were slow with high torques.

In the classified field, third place was awarded to Car 1 from Plumpton, second place to Kamikaze from Brooksby Melton and taking home the top prize was Diesel Power from Reasheath. In addition to a cash prize from the IAgrE, each of these teams was presented with a Bosch IXO Screwdriver gift set donated by Bosch Rexroth in the UK.

The three teams entered into the unclassified field stretched the rules to the limit and placed first equal were Sleeping Beauty and Ask Jim, both from Reaseheath.

For more information about the event and details on how to enter the 2010 competition, please visit The Institution of Agricultural Engineers’ website directly at: www.iagre.org