THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Five students from the Mar Baselios Engineering College in the city have suggested a new chassis design for autorickshaws rolled out by Kerala Automobiles Ltd (KAL), which could save the public sector undertaking around Rs 1 crore a year.
And, incidentally, KAL has evinced keen interest in the new design and has decided to implement the proposals submitted by the students.
Sonu S. Babu, Rahul Harish, Rachin U.R., Irfan Hamid and Anshad A., 8th semester B Tech students, worked on a remodelled V-II 400 Chassis used on the passenger autos manufactured by KAL as part of their project.
In the design, the number of sections on the chassis has been brought down from 47 pieces to 39 and the weight of the chassis has been reduced by eight kg, from 40 to 32 kg. Reduced weight also means more mileage. According to the students, the cost per auto has been cut by around Rs 1,500.
“The design that’s being used now is an Italian one and goes back to the 1980s,’’ the students said. “It is over-designed, meaning that the chassis had more strength in it than was needed. There was no software then to test it out.’’
The new chassis is capable of carrying the same weight as the old one - 110 kg. A modification is that the height of the foot-rest from the ground has gone down from 43 cm to 30 cm, which means it will be easier for passengers, especially the aged, to get into the auto.
The students had chosen the KAL for industrial training as part of their course. They were suggested a few projects to work on, and one of them was re-designing the chassis. A senior engineer of the KAL liked their work.
They fabricated the new chassis at the KAL itself.
KAL, set up in 1978, started production in 1984. Today, it exports sturdy autorickshaws to north India and to countries including Ethiopia.