Connector system used on electric race vehicle

The Datamate high-reliability connector system from Harwin is being used by Imperial College London's Imperial Racing Green team in a competition for full-size electric race vehicles.

Imperial Racing Green is an undergraduate teaching project at Imperial College London involving almost 100 students across eight different engineering departments.

It draws on expertise from across the university's Faculty of Engineering, building low-emissions, hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric vehicles to compete in worldwide races.

It is the also the only UK team to participate in Formula Zero, alongside teams from the USA, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The Imperial Racing Green design team is using Harwin's high-performance 2mm pitch Datamate connector system in the battery management system of its electric track vehicle IRG04, which is entering the 2010 IMechE Formula Student Class 2 (Design) Competition and will be entering the 2011 Class 1A event as a race-ready track vehicle.

Team member Amit Meghani said: 'Our karts reach speeds of 50-60mph and therefore the interconnection system must withstand a great deal of vibration.

'As we travel around the figure-of-eight course the kart will also be subject to forces of up to 3G so shock performance is vital too,' he added.

The team is using Datamate J-Tek, which features jackscrews for additional security.

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