Engineering students and teaching staff at the Cluny campus spent a year working on Scarabée d'Or, a Citroën tracked vehicle. The fruits of their labor will be on display from October 10 to 15 at the Musée national arts et métiers.
A project initiated by an association
As part of Citroën's 100th anniversary celebrations in 2019, the association Des Voitures & des Hommes set out to build an exact replica of the Citroën Scarabée d'Or half-track vehicle which, along with four other vehicles, made the first crossing of the Sahara in 1922. To achieve this, the association called on the Cluny campus and the Château d'Épluches vocational school for automotive and transport trades. The former was responsible for manufacturing the track system, while the latter took care of the bodywork and engine.
This year, fifty engineering students in their first and second years (PJT and UEI2P) and in the Master of Science program MTI3D, joined forces on this project. They successfully completed several stages: disassembly, taking measurements using traditional and digital instruments such as a laser scanner, and designing a CAD model. They even revisited a former entrance exam requirement: wash drawings! In fact, when the vehicle was delivered over a year ago, no original sketches remained, as they had been destroyed during World War II. The engineering students recreated these drawings, which will be made available to Citroën and the PSA Group organization responsible for preserving its heritage, Aventure Peugeot Citroën DS.
It was a very enriching experience. By creating the exploded view of the caterpillar, I was able to appreciate the complexity and beauty of the mechanism used at that time. Elio Khouri, MTI3D student
Arts et Métiers not only
The project will continue over the coming months with engineering students from Cluny, as well as from theAngers and Metz campuses, who have been working hard to obtain raw parts using the casting process. Three campuses and the Image Institute in Chalon-sur-Saône are working together to ensure the project is completed on time. ENISEENISE in Saint Étienne will be called upon to cut the pinions. Finally, for the Château d'Épluches vocational high school, working on the Scarabée D'Or will enable the school to create a specific post-CAP and BAC PRO training course dedicated to the maintenance and restoration of vintage vehicles.
See you at the 2017 Science Festival!
For more information and to meet the teachers and students involved in this project, you are invited to join the teams from the Institut Image on October 10 and 14, as well as the Cluny team on October 12, 2017, at the Musée national des arts et métiers , where they will present their work during conferences held from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
