Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/298092
C G W M a r ch / A p r i l 2 014 ■ 35 ■ THE DESIGN TEAM used the body shape and aerodynamics of the original Night Train but made vital revisions to the new sled. handle – is situated inside the sled. On the outside, retractable push bars are located in the front and rear, while the brakeman's push bars are on the rear. Over the years, the US team has increased its bobsled speed in a number of ways, including with optimized man- power and better design. The four-person team consists of a pilot, a brakeman, and two pushers. Athletes for the latter posi- tions are especially selected based on their speed and strength, giving the sled an optimal start in the race. (This year, a number of bobsled teams included track and field Olympians, as was the case for when Lauryn Williams, a three-time Olympic sprinter and 2012 100-meter relay Olympic gold medalist, and Lolo Jones, a two-time Olympic hurdler and two-time World Indoor Champion, be- came pushers for the women's bobsled teams.) The pilot, meanwhile, must keep the sled on course and prevent it from reducing speed by scraping the sides of the narrow track. Design is another big factor in deter- mining speed. Sleds must adhere to tight restrictions in size, weight, and other parameters. So, sled designers must find other options where they can shave off precious milliseconds to produce a better sled. And who better to contend with the need for speed than someone who has made his mark on a different fast track: NASCAR? Racing to Win With design a huge factor, the USA bob- sled teams have been racing with "reno- vated" sleds from their fierce European competitors. And that bothered former NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine – so much so that he began the not-for-profit Bo- Dyn Bobsled Project Inc. with the goal to build an American-made, medal-winning bobsled. After watching the USA team struggle using discarded European sleds at the 1992 Winter Olympics, Bodine applied his high-speed racing know-how with the design engineering skills of his racing partner, Bob Cuneo, to create a new generation of sleds. "They weren't using US sleds, and they weren't doing well," Bodine says. "It wasn't because of lack of ability. It was the equipment. It was purchased from [USA team] competitors, and they weren't selling them their best. They sold them their worst. I decided to do something about that." The result of their collaboration led to a new bobsled design, the original Night Train, used by the 2010 American team to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport for the first time in 62 years since their victory at St. Mortiz, Switzerland. Aware of the strict rules enforced by sport officials and the challenges of achieving even better race times, Bodine knew that the 2D design tools used for the first-generation Night Train would not be enough to up the game of USA Team-1 and build the world's fastest bob- sled for the Sochi Games. (He was right. USA Team-2 took to the bobsled track in Sochi with Nick Cunningham driving the original Night Train to 12th place.) Instead, they would need top-level 3D design tools and capabilities. To this end, the design team turned to SolidWorks, a 3D design application based on Dassault Systèmes' 3DExperi- ence platform, with the lofty goal of cre- ating a faster sled for the challenges of the Sochi course. The original bobsled's aerodynamics had been optimized for the fast downhill track of the Vancouver, Canada, Olympics in 2010. The track at the Sochi Games, however, was filled with three tricky uphill sections that re- quired precise handling to generate the most speed out of the track's curves. "We knew we needed an accurate and precise 3D design that could give us a realistic and cost-effective way to test and tweak Night Train 2 prototypes," says Bodine. "SolidWorks helped us de- sign using a lighter material (Night Train 2 is made of carbon fiber instead of Kevlar and fiberglass) and creating multiple 3D prototypes of the bobsled on the com- puter so we could get it just the way we wanted it before we began building and manufacturing it," he explains. In particular, the digital design soft- ware enabled Cuneo to experiment with the weight of the sled and how that impacted the handling. "You win in these races by a very small amount of time (less than one-tenth of a second separated the gold and silver medalists at Sochi), and the key to winning is very small changes in design," Bodine says. "We were able to quickly make those crucial changes." At the Start Gate Most of the engineering and design work was done by Cuneo, a race-car builder, and his team. Jim "Cheech" Garde, designer and model-maker for Bo-Dyn and owner of Cheech's Creative Concepts, did the majority of the hands- on work. "SolidWorks was used to design the entire sled – everything from maximizing the space in the front of the sled, to where driver Steve Holcomb's heel slid down into the structure, to grips, steering, and ropes. Every piece