The technical engineering staff at the Dublin office have over the past few months undertaken a substantial design and build project. The project was to design and build a highly advanced off road race buggy capable of navigating the roughest of terrain whilst moving at high speed. The design team at Joule consisted of Alan Kealy (Production Manager), Emmet Bosonnet (Technical Sales Manager), Ian Barrett (Technical Director), Marc Behan (Production Supervisior). The build kicked off with initial design and r&d drawings produced by Alan with a lot of input from the whole team. The buggy chassis was designed using CAD and Rhino 3D design programmes which Joule also uses in the design of their market leading range of copper and stainless steel hot water cylinders. It was decided that the team would use a specialized steel tubular frame for the chassis construction with the chassis build taking 7 weeks from initial design to complete welding and fabrication of the chassis. It was then time to decide what engine and drive train would be used bearing in mind that the team needed to keep the centre of gravity low whilst maintaining a ultra low weight capacity. Following hours of consultation it was decided by the Joule team to go with the well proven Suzuki GSXR -600 engine and gearbox. The main reason for this choice was that the power to weight ratio would be excellent with a 0 -60 mph of 3.8 seconds!!! The new engine and gearbox was sourced and mated to the newly fabricated chassis all built within the state of the art Joule facility in Ballyfermot, Dublin 10. The final piece in the jigsaw was the suspension and body design, the team decided on a conventional wishbone design front and rear suspension comple with fully adjustable dampers allowing the buggy to carry maximum speed over the roughest terrain. As can be seen from the image the team decided on a composite lightweight bodywork design thus keeping the weight down but allowing a very sleek finish, all in all a great success and all the team are looking forward to the first event of the 2012 season.
The technical engineering staff at the Dublin office have over the past few months undertaken a substantial design and build project. The project was to design and build a highly advanced off road race buggy capable of navigating the roughest of terrain whilst moving at high speed. The design team at Joule consisted of Alan Kealy (Production Manager), Emmet Bosonnet (Technical Sales Manager), Ian Barrett (Technical Director), Marc Behan (Production Supervisior). The build kicked off with initial design and r&d drawings produced by Alan with a lot of input from the whole team. The buggy chassis was designed using CAD and Rhino 3D design programmes which Joule also uses in the design of their market leading range of copper and stainless steel hot water cylinders. It was decided that the team would use a specialized steel tubular frame for the chassis construction with the chassis build taking 7 weeks from initial design to complete welding and fabrication of the chassis. It was then time to decide what engine and drive train would be used bearing in mind that the team needed to keep the centre of gravity low whilst maintaining a ultra low weight capacity. Following hours of consultation it was decided by the Joule team to go with the well proven Suzuki GSXR -600 engine and gearbox. The main reason for this choice was that the power to weight ratio would be excellent with a 0 -60 mph of 3.8 seconds!!! The new engine and gearbox was sourced and mated to the newly fabricated chassis all built within the state of the art Joule facility in Ballyfermot, Dublin 10. The final piece in the jigsaw was the suspension and body design, the team decided on a conventional wishbone design front and rear suspension comple with fully adjustable dampers allowing the buggy to carry maximum speed over the roughest terrain. As can be seen from the image the team decided on a composite lightweight bodywork design thus keeping the weight down but allowing a very sleek finish, all in all a great success and all the team are looking forward to the first event of the 2012 season.
