Vehicles, driven by a person and powered by only one electric drill racing against each other. This is the basic idea of the “Akkuschrauberrennen“ (Electric Screwdrivers’ Race) organized by TH Köln and Arts Hildesheim. Different teams from various design and engineering schools participated. Every year, there is a special requirement to fulfill. This year’s challenge was to integrate a 3D- printed part bridging a distance of 500 millimeter between the axes.
It was not the first time that KISD – Köln International School of Design has been participating in the race. In 2013, the KISD vehicle was one of the fastest driving 33km/h and reaching 3rd place – due to constructional issues, the vehicle tipped over and caused the loss of valuable seconds. This taken into consideration, the concept of the new vehicle focused on a tilt steering allowing driving at high speed even in narrow curves.
As the project in previous semesters had been focused on the development of a driving prototype, it now rather dealt with developing and advancing the 3D-printed part and the overall improvement of the vehicle.
For the printed part, project members this time chose a modular center piece which provided a platform for accordingly installing the seat. Wanting to exceed last year’s results, project members were eagerly looking forward to June 25, the day of the race.
