UVM Society of Mechanical Engineers Races to the Finish Line With Help From Xometry
The University of Vermont’s ASME chapter partnered with Xometry to refine its recumbent e-trike design, saving the club $1,500 and ensuring it met the deadline to race in the ASME Electric and Human Powered Vehicle Challenge.
When the University of Vermont (UVM) chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) set out to build a lightweight, high-performance recumbent vehicle, they faced a fast-approaching timeline and complex engineering constraints. Partnering with the Xometry Innovators Program (XIP) provided the team with the manufacturing precision, rapid turnarounds, and design guidance needed to create a podium-worthy vehicle.
The Challenge: Custom Parts on a Short Timeline and Tight Budget
The ASME Electric-Human Powered Vehicle Competition (eHPVC) challenges university teams to design, build, and race highly efficient e-bikes and e-trikes. Returning for their second year, the UVM ASME team — led by President Alex Zaccardi alongside team captain Daniel Mazzarese and technical leads Matthew Rogers and Benjamin Rogers — aimed to upgrade their performance over the previous year's build.
The team designed a recumbent e-trike constructed out of carbon fiber tubing bonded into aluminum joints, with a unique drivetrain.
"The hardest technical challenge was designing the drivetrain," Matthew Rogers said. "We used a SRAM UDH derailleur, which shifts exceptionally well under load, but is not compatible with solid axle e-hubs. This meant that we had to design a custom mounting system for the rear wheel that adapted two standards that were never meant to be combined."
With a four-month build window, roughly half the time utilized by competing schools, the team needed high-precision custom parts without exceeding their budget.
The Solution: Refined Design Cuts Down on Weight and Price
To bridge the gap between two mismatched standards, the UVM team leveraged Xometry’s CNC machining services for four critical custom parts:
- Rear Dropout Mounts: Connected the wheel mounting hardware to the carbon tubing of the frame (made from lightweight and economical 6061-T6 aluminum).
- Left & Right Dropouts: Precision components securing the wheel axle to the frame mounts (machined from high-strength 7075-T6 aluminum).
- Clamp Bolt: A thin-walled component holding the derailleur (machined from Grade 5 titanium for maximum strength under torque).
- Wheel Mount Nut: Threaded internal nut anchoring the wheel directly to the dropout.
Using the Xometry Instant Quoting Engine, and guidance from a Xometry support specialist, the team optimized their CAD models for manufacturability.
“Xometry helped us to refine the design to significantly reduce cost, saving roughly $1,500," Rogers said. "Our support specialist helped us improve the design to reduce the price so that our club could afford to order faster processing and shipping. When we ordered these parts, we needed them within 10 days, and Xometry offered machining services in the US that could guarantee this timeframe."
Partnering with Xometry saved the club from a 2-week construction delay, which would have prevented us from competing this year, while also saving us $1,500.Matthew RogersTechnical lead, UVM ASME
The Results: A Lean, Mean Racing Machine With a Podium Finish!
By moving from manual in-house 3-axis milling to multi-axis CNC machining through Xometry, the team achieved strict tolerances while shaving off an extra pound of weight from their finished trike. That’s a 2% overall reduction for the entire vehicle.
At the ASME race, the UVM e-trike proved its worth on the track, taking home second place in both the high-speed drag race and the endurance race.
Through smart material selection, design optimization, and rapid manufacturing, UVM ASME transformed complex engineering challenges into a podium finish.
Xometry is proud to empower student engineers through the Xometry Innovators Program as they turn ambitious designs into real-world results.