Oct 21, 2014 The University of Michigan Solar Car Team will be representing Saturn Electronics Corporation at the 2014 SAE Convergence in Detroit, Michigan. They will be exhibiting their 2011 vehicle, Quantum, which most recently raced in the 2014 American Solar Challenge, where it won its 2nd national championship title, the most recent of the 8 in the team’s history. Along with their car, they will also be exhibiting some of the many boards that Saturn Electronics Corporation manufactures for the team.
The University of Michigan Solar Car Team is an entirely student-run project team that designs, builds, and races solar-powered vehicles. The team competes at both the national and the international level, and excels at both. The team has held the national championship title for the past decade by winning the last 5 of the biennial American Solar Challenge, and has won 8 national championships overall. In addition, over the team’s 25 year history, they have finished in the top 3 at the World Solar Challenge 5 times. The team has a tradition of winning, and strives to achieve excellence in every aspect of their operations.
The team is currently preparing for the 2015 World Solar Challenge, which will begin just less than a year from now in October of 2015. They are already well into their design process, and have many new ideas for improving all of the systems of the car.
Saturn Electronics has been a proud sponsor of the team since 2007, and has been the principal PCB manufacturer for the team over the past 7 years. The team builds a new car every two years, but the electrical system is constantly being developed, redesigned, and innovated. In order to make this possible, the team relies heavily on Saturn’s capabilities, as well as its flexibility. Working with a student project team requires a strong ability to adapt and experiment, and Saturn has shown a truly exemplary ability to do so.
Every PCB board in the car is designed by members of the electrical division of the team, and are manufactured by Saturn. The in-house designs encompass a variety of systems from a battery management system to driver interface controls, including a steering wheel and dashboard. Each one of these designs are constantly being improved upon, and new iterations use many of Saturn’s advanced capabilities. The quality of the boards that the team receives from Saturn is crucial to the success of the electrical system as a whole, and the team can always rely on top of the line production from Saturn.
Saturn Electronics Corporation is a debt-free, top 10 domestic printing circuit board manufacturing firm based in Romulus, Michigan. It is a privately held company, founded in 1985 by Nagji Sutariya, and currently has around 200 employees. Saturn offers industry-leading lead-free circuit boards and provides cutting-edge solutions necessary to design, assembly, and fabrication. Saturn is certified for high-reliability, safety, and under-hood applications and was the first company in the US to achieve TS16949 Certification and one of the first PCB fabricators in North America to attain AS9100 Certification, the aerospace industry’s standardized quality management system. In addition to meeting the demands of the electronic manufacturing industry, Saturn is also a trusted adviser providing solutions to educate their customers.
