Guide To The 2024 FSAE Cost Module Changes
Emily Anthony is one of the Cost and Manufacturing Event Captains for the FSAE North America competitions.
The purpose of this article is to increase transparency and allow the students to “peek behind the curtain” for the Cost and Manufacturing event at the FSAE competitions. For the 2023 article, please follow the link below:
https://www.designjudges.com/articles/guide-to-the-2023-cost-module-changes
Scope of Changes
The edits made to the 2024 Online Cost Catalog are across all subsystems, with additions and subtractions made to harmonize the catalogs between the FSAE North American competitions and FSAE Australasia. Additionally, we took this opportunity to adjust the PCB costing introduced in 2023 as well as rework some long-standing items in the catalog that needed specification and clarification. These edits are all published in the changelog linked here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iquS5tlPP7SeR3VzAZbpW842bOL25jVm3qjvNABJ7Tk/
Below lists some of the changes with some commentary.
Students should be auditing their reports prior to submission to verify they are not using Obsolete components. Obsolete components are only possible when the student teams are duplicating their Cost Reports from a previous year and iterating upon them. Reference the changelog published above to make sure you are not using Obsolete items. There is not a tool on FSAEonline to check this for you.
Materials Changes
Bearings:
1. Removed all generalized Bearing types
2. Re-Added all Bearing, Ball types with a fork based on Ball material: Ceramic or Steel
3. Re-Added Spherical Bearings based on application: Industrial or Suspension
Wheel Bearings were not edited. Please do not use the Bearings listed above for your wheel bearings, as you will be penalized in accuracy and adjusted vehicle cost.
Brakes System:
Several Bought calipers and master cylinders were added to the catalog which are common use in Australasia. “Balance Bar, Brake, Student Built”, “Brake Caliper, Student Built”, “Master Cylinder, Student Made” were added to the catalog to remind students to Cost as Made.
Composites:
“Adhesive Film” and “Structural Fiber Mat” material were added. Adhesive Film has $0 in cost, but must be added in addition to a Lamination step required to place the Film. The instructions in the Composites section of the Cost Supplement were updated to reflect this change.
LV Electronics:
Connectors were separated between High Power and Low Power for all connection types.
PCBs:
Circuit Card Assembly 2/multilayer materials have been removed. PCB costing has been reworked slightly to account for board dimensions (in mm^2) and number of conductive layers. This reduces complexity in the materials catalog and avoids a common mistake seen in 2023.
Simple PCB components have been reworked. Semi-Complex PCB component has been added for semi-conductor based components (Diodes, Transistors, Logic Gates, etc). Integrated Circuits description has been adjusted.
Additionally, flexible printed circuit board has been added.
EV:
UL94 and HV insulation barriers were added to the Materials Catalog.
Plumbing:
Fittings were reworked to be cost by size.
Miscellaneous:
Paints, Vinyl coverings, stickers, tapes, and a few other miscellaneous items have been reworked.
Process Changes
Basic Forming:
Cold and Hot Forging added
Liquid fill molding – Molding process at atmospheric pressure with liquid resin poured into mold cavity
Profile Extrusion – may only produce lengths up to 6m
Coatings:
Anodizing and Chrome Plating have been forked for Cosmetic and Hardened (functional) coatings
Paint processes have been changed to reflect the changes in the Materials Catalog. Surface Preparation for painting has been added.
Machining:
Wire EDM has been forked into 2 axis, multi-axis, Hot Wire Sculpting (for foams, plastics, etc which can be melted by a hot wire), both 2 and multi-axis. The intention is to differentiate between Wire EDM of metals for precision manufacturing versus wire-cutting foam for aerodynamic core, impact attenuators, etc. which is generally at less cost.
Non-metallic cutting (<= 25.4mm, 50.8mm, etc) has been consolidated into one step cost by length.
Saw or Tubing cuts has been deleted and replaced with Tubing Lasercut Profiling/end preparation. This is cost by diameter of tube. To be used for fish-mouthing of tubing to join to other tubes, and any other operation where the end of a tube is not cut in a planar profile.
Tooling Changes
Three metal forming tools have been added:
Profile Extrusion Die – Per full die assembly. Includes forward and backwards extrusion tools.
Sheet Metal Stamping Die – Tool used to form sheet metal to a complex shape in a single pass. Requires trimming after operation to form edges of part to shape.
Sheet Metal Spinning Die – Tool used to spin sheet metal to complex cylindrical shape. Requires cutting of blanking material prior to spinning operation.
Two Plastic/Rubber Forming tools have been added:
Vacuum Forming Die – for thermoformed plastics under a vacuum, not for Composites. See Lamination – Mold Tool for Composites. Cost by surface area of formed piece.
Pouring Fixture, Resin Casting – for liquid castings in any mold material. Cost by surface area of cast piece.
And one PCB tool:
PCB Component Positioning Jig – One side of PCB only, used for surface mount component hand positioning OR machine placement
This PCB tool is an addition, so the PCB Stencil tool is still required when solder paste is used. This means many PCBs will have two tools. This tool is meant to represent the holder that the PCB sits in or even a clamp, jig, or helping hands to hold it in place when it is soldered.
Fasteners Changes
We added a bunch of different materials for Fasteners, including Aluminum, Brass, Stainless Steel, etc.
Standoffs for PCBs in various materials have also been added.
Thinking ahead for 2025
We are investigating adding or changing a costing method for Composites in addition to the mass-based carbon costing currently in the catalog. Thanks to collaboration with the Structural Equivalency Spreadsheet team and feedback from monocoque teams that their costs are “too high” (I’d recommend simply not building a monocoque if you’re concerned about cost to produce, but I digress), we have identified a possible path forward to allow teams to cost their carbon fiber by Areal Weight (GSM) for each layer. I’ve started some analysis on the 2024 Monocoque SESs to identify trends in reported Areal Weight, estimated mass percentage fiber, and reported skin thicknesses to characterize the expected mass from the teams’ tubs. Currently, the Carbon Fiber in the Materials Catalog is cost by mass, and it assumes a density of 1580 kg/m^3.
It may be more practical for teams to input their GSM + layup schedules + Surface Area in the Cost Report instead of reporting a mass + Surface Area + number of layers, as it can be easily checked for accuracy with comparison to the SES documentation. This will not be implemented for 2024 as data needs to be collected from the 2024 Cost Reports and a cost formula needs to be derived. However, students should know that we are thinking about it and recognize the shortcomings of the current catalog. Please report your costs accurately and be mindful of the supplemental documentation provided in your reports to enable us to check the report to the best of our ability. After competition, make sure you fill out the surveys and provide feedback for all events, especially for Cost and Manufacturing.
See you in May and enjoy your bean counting!