CWRU Motorsports Baja SAE

Over the past four years I've been a drivetrain engineer for CWRU Motorsports, helping design and fabricate a new car each year. I am the 4x4 drivetrain lead for the 2025 season, and have been steadily working to improve the subsystem as it has entered baja over the last several years. Here are a few of the cars I have worked on over my time on the team.

SR-25 (2024-2025)

As the four-wheel drive design lead I lead a redesign to a propshaft system from our old chain system. This required all new components such as designing spiral bevel gears and transfer cases, while still maintaining the favorable packaging of our previous design. Ultimately the new system resulted in a 7 lb weight reduction as well as improved reliability and serviceability.

SR-24 (2023-2024)

For the 2024 car I developed a new friction clutch-based torque biasing system to increase the maximum four-wheel drive torque. This change allowed for improved performance over large obstacles. Additionally, I improved the packaging of the system to allow for higher suspension angles.

SR-23 (2022-2023)

For our 2023 car I began focusing my design efforts on the front drivetrain, working primarily on designing driveshaft components to connect the drive chain to the front shafts, with the goal of increasing reliability and reducing weight for the first year of mandatory four-wheel drive. I began CAM programming for the large number of CNC-machined components required by the new subsystems. With the efforts of the team, we managed our best result ever and took 1st place in the 2023 Ohio competition.

SR-22 (2021-2022)

My first year on Baja, I spent most of my time learning from existing members and learning new tools such as our CAD and PDM systems. I designed mounting & guard systems for our drivetrain on-car, as well as manufacturing fixtures.

Design Work - CWRU Baja 2025 Season

For the 2025 season I focused heavily on implementing the new propshaft system, while training other members to design and optimize other components.

The final part of the propshaft system, the front transfer case contains the final drive reduction for the four wheel drive. The assembly also houses the torque biasing clutches to reduce overall size.

Front Transfer Case, Propshaft, and Torque Limiting System

The assembly uses u-joints to wrap around the driver, allowing the seat to be lowered and reducing the CG height by 1.5 inches. The system is primarily made of aluminum, compared to the previous steel chain and sprocket system.

The torque biasing system uses a pair of locked friction clutches with a set pre-tension to limit the maximum torque to each front wheel individually. This mechanism lets us run extremely high four-wheel drive torque for climbing large obstacles while also allowing for smaller driveshafts. The system behaves as a locked axle when climbing obstacles, but uses sprag bearings in the wheel hubs to let the car turn with the four-wheel drive active.

For the propshaft design to be successful, reliable and efficient bevel gears are required. I designed a pair of spiral bevel gears for use with the front transfer case to act as the final drive reduction. We worked with a manufacturing sponsor to have our designs fabricated on gear-grinding equipment to ensure good surface finish and tooth form.

To improve our torque biasing system, I designed custom friction plates which were fabricated by a sponsor. These plates are 1/3rd of the thickness of the off-the-shelf material we used in the 2024 system.

With the new plate design, the torque biasing system occupies 67% less volume and can be packaged alongside the front transfer case without negatively impacting the placement of other components such as the front driveshaft u-joints.

CWRU Baja - 2024 & 2023

A selection of components I designed and manufactured for our 2024 and 2023 Baja cars

Front Upright/Steering Knuckle (2024)

The front upright which supports the front driveshaft and wheel and provides attachment points for the suspension, steering, and brakes. A mounting point for a hall effect sensor is also provided to measure wheel RPM.

Front Spindle Yoke (2024)

The front spindle yoke connects the front driveshaft to the front hubs. It is made of grade 5 titanium to decrease the weight.

Torque Bias Limiter (2024)

My first iteration of the torque limiter design using a multi-plate clutch system. The design used commercially available clutch lining that was cut into the final plate shape on our waterjet.

CNC Machining - Dog Clutch Tooth Ring (2023)

This part is made of 6-6-2 titanium (Ti-6Al-6V-2Sn) because the teeth require high strength and wear resistance. Titanium 6-6-2 exhibits higher strength than standard grade 5, making it ideal for this part, but more difficult to machine.

CNC Machining - Flange Yoke (2023)

The flange yokes are the upper u-joint for the rear drivetrain, where the driveshafts attach to the gearbox output. Tool clearance proved to be a challenge on this part.

Front Driveshaft Bearing Housings (2023)

I designed and machined custom bearing mounts for the front driveshaft because they were lighter than off-the-shelf cast steel components.

Other Projects

2024 - Magnetron System

Me and Zach Baldwin (MS. CE, CWRU 24) made a magnetron sputtering system for depositing thin metallic films onto substrates. My part of the system was the head consisting of the anode & cathode. The copper cathode holds the magnets and has integrated fins and fluid channels for circulating dielectric coolant. The aluminum anode provides a high voltage potential to the system separated by a small gap, and is insulated with a teflon guard.

2023 - Cray Restoration

Since 2023 I have been working on restoring a vintage Cray Y-MP EL supercomputer system from the early 1990s. These vector processor systems were used at the time for high-performance scientific computing, such as simulation and analysis work.

2018 - 3D Printer Build

In 2018 I built a custom 3D printer based on the Voron V2.0 prototype files. The design includes linear rails on all axes to allow for accurate high speed movement. The printer also includes auto bed leveling capabilities. Because the gantry moves in XYZ and the bed is stationary, the system allows for much larger prints without contributing additional inertia to the system. Custom components were printed from ABS plastic. The system exhibits strong vibration damping under high accelerations due to the use of a cubic frame built from aluminum extrusion that's highly rigid in all directions, as well as the mass added by the solid aluminum build plate.

Hi! I'm Xavier