Outside of the bumper project, I designed a toe alignment fixture made of multiple parts. One part locks the bell crank in place to hold the steering straight, while a second part references the brake rotor to the upper control arm to set the desired toe angle.
Arctic Cat Mechanical Engineering Internship - Wildcat Winch Bumper
I worked as a mechanical engineering intern at Arctic Cat, placed on the dirt team under Derek Sorenson. My main project was designing a new winch bumper for the Wildcat model.
The original winch bumper was designed and manufactured out of house, averaging about $250 per bumper. My goal was to bring that cost down and, if possible, improve the attack angle at the same time. To do that, I lowered the winch's location, which let me shift it backward as well. That change also let me remove two mounting brackets from the design, and I was able to remove three tubes from the structure on top of that.
By the time my internship ended, I'd only received one manufacturing quote; around $58 per bumper for an EAU (estimated annual usage) of 500 units, plus about $10 for paint. That quote didn't include tooling cost per bumper, but even accounting for that, the total cost per bumper landed around or under $100; a savings of roughly $150 per bumper over the original design. The company used my design, and it was seen on the models of the following year.
My bumper design on the Wildcat XX line
Additional Projects
Toe Alignment Fixture
Center of Gravity Procedure
I also helped develop a new center of gravity procedure. Instead of lifting the entire vehicle to find the CG manually, the new method weighs the vehicle and lifts just one end. Using scales at each end, we could measure the weight shift and use it to calculate the center of gravity height.
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