21XT Rack and Pinion

This is a steering rack and pinion for the Hopkins Baja 2024-2025 race car, the JH21XT. It is designed to withstand the harsh conditions of off-road Baja racing while being as light as possible to reduce overall vehicle weight. Static structural analysis in ANSYS was used to identify areas where weight could be reduced in the 7075 aluminum rack casing. The load case considered the entire car landing a jump on one wheel, with the force of the landing being transferred through a tie rod and into the rack, while the rack is at maximum rotation. 

A hall-effect angle position sensor was also integrated into the rack and pinion to gather steering data to be correlated to tie rod strain gauge data, to better inform design in the future. This integrated sensor was 90% lighter than the previous encoder-based system, and is part of my ongoing efforts to improve Data Acquisition System integration into mechanical subsystems and the car as a whole.