UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER MASTERS ENGINEERING PROJECT
On Monday the 29thof April, Franke Bearings of Longridge Preston attended ‘An Engineering Night at the Museum’ hosted by The University of Manchester. The event was to unveil and present the final projects of the 4th year and Master’s students of Mechanical Engineering.
Over the past 22 weeks the students of the school of MACE at the University of Manchester have been working on their final year projects, which has focused on bringing concepts to reality.
Their challenge was to produce a hubless vehicle wheel, within a budget of £700 of 1m³. The group of 5 students contacted Franke during the start of the project, looking to use a Wire Race Bearing within the hubless wheel and also to collaborate with Franke for guidance. Following discussions with Franke UK and with support from their design team in Germany, Franke were able to provide a bearing for the project to the specification needed and with no cost to the students.
“It’s been great to work with the students of the university and to watch how the project has taken shape. The Franke Wire Race Bearing was perfect for the application as it was produced exactly to their requirements and the unique design of these bearings enables high accuracy and load capacity plus flexibility of design. It was a pleasure to work with some of these brilliant engineering minds of the future.”
Phil Worden, Managing Director of Franke Bearings
The hubless wheel was split between inner and outer rims on the left and right, with Franke bearings encased in all four rim components. Unveiled at The Manchester Museum on the evening of the 29thof April, students and members of the public attended to interact with the innovative products and devices.
“It was an absolute pleasure to work with Franke Bearings for our Hubless wheel. This was designed for our Mechanical Engineering Master’s project at the University of Manchester. They offered regular consultation to assist with the design and manufacture. The interactions were always friendly but professional. Would look to collaborate with them again for any projects in the future.”
Ross Thomson, MEng Masters Group – The University of Manchester
