The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is a spectacle every year. This classic event takes place in a 3,000-kilometre course under the scorching Australian sun. Solar cars are used, which get at least 90% of their energy from the sun, supplemented by reused of kinetic energy. The brightest minds among university students converge to compete in the race for the most successful innovation. At Meilink, bright minds delivered multimodal flight cases for no fewer than three teams this year: those from the universities of Groningen, Twente and Delft.
Race against the clock
The flight cases are custom-made from the submissions from the various teams. For the students, it is a race against the clock to get the designed entry ready. This also a very challenging task for Meilink's engineers every year, as the flight cases must be ready in time to transport the irreplaceable cargo to Darwin, which is the starting point in Australia. An extra challenge is that the flight cases should be suitable for transport by air on the outbound journey, and return by ship, while the flight cases are transported by truck in Australia itself, where they are also used as storage after arrival. Meilink has been sponsoring the Dutch solar teams for years by supplying custom-made flight cases, and the Twente team even from the beginning.
Multimodal flight cases
Engineer Jan Willem ten Beitel expalins: "This year, we started from the same base for each team: a crate with reinforced bottom and two chamfered tops that can be transported in a Boeing 777 cargo plane and by ship for the return journey in a standard 20 foot box container. Team Delft worked with the catamaran concept, which creates a short, wide car with a double hull, with the pilot on the right side. The teams from Groningen and Twente appeared to favour the bullet concept in the form of a long, slender tricycle with the pilot in the middle. The crates for Groningen and Twente therefore feature a longitudinal partition with the car on one side and space for other luggage on the other side. Delft has a partition in the width of the flight case, with space behind it for the rest of the equipment. All three teams opted for the tried-and-tested concept of the roll-out plate that can be rolled into and out of the box over rollers for safe entry and exit."
Royal warrant supplier for Solar Teams
Peter Rikken, owner of Meilink, is proud of the confidence the teams have in Meilink: "We have now become the royal warrant supplier to the Dutch solar teams. The reason is that very few parties can handle the complete picture, from design and production to delivery and supporting logistics services such as warehousing and supervised packaging. The most important aspect is that the solar teams are so satisfied, that those who follow them will also knock on our door again."
Would you also like to participate and contribute to sophisticated packaging solutions? Then have a look at vacancies we currently have available: werkenbijmeilink.eu
