11-18-2004 08:42 AM

Charlie B

Re: pic: Team 60 Wheel Design

Can anyone help me better understand Team 60's wheel design? George sent me drawings, but I still would like to know...

Who is the vendor and what is the part number of the conveyor belt material that goes around the perimeter?

How is the material held in place? I see the ridges to hold the edges, but I'm sure there's more. Do screws or rivets go through the material, into the thick part of the wheel?

What is the coefficient of friction of the conveyor belt material against carpeting?

11-18-2004 09:15 AM

JVN

Re: pic: Team 60 Wheel Design

www.mcmaster.com

Search "Wedge top" (with the space) or skip to page 1089.

This "wedgetop" inclined conveyor belting is the stuff sometimes refferred to as "60 tread". It has been used by many teams, including Kingman, with great effect.

Also, on that same page, check out "Roughtop" conveyor belting. This is also good stuff. (I've heard to use the gum-rubber, "tan").

Both of these materials have coefficients of friction between 1.2 and 1.4.

Though there have been many arguments about which material is better, you should probably do your own testing, and decide from there. The 2 major qualities you'll want to experiment with are: coefficient of friction, and wear characteristics. In 2003, the wire mesh on the ramp ate "wedgetop" for breakfast. You needed to swap out wheels every few matches to keep them in good shape.

Good Luck,
John

11-18-2004 10:34 AM

Max Lobovsky

Re: pic: Team 60 Wheel Design

My team was looking at wheel designs and I pointed them to 60's. We figured out your design from one of the pictures of the robot, but I wasn't sure how they might be fabricated. I'm not too familiar with lathing, can that lip to hold the belt material cut with a lathe?

Also, in some other thread about your wheels, someone said that you screwed that the belt material was screwed in radially in a few places to help hold it down. I assume you drilled these holes through the rim on the thicker piece.

Finally, what do you use for a hub? Is it bolted around the central hole? What shaft diameter/keyway and length of keyway did you use?

Thanks.

11-18-2004 11:08 AM

Dave Scheck

Re: pic: Team 60 Wheel Design

I never knew the name of it, but it looks like the belting that we've been using on our wheels for the past few years. It works very well on the surfaces that we've been playing on.
We've attached the belting to the wheel using rivets. It makes it easy to change treads when they get worn...just drill out the old one and pop in a new one. You can see a rivet in the right wheel in the attached picture just above the frame.

Maybe one of our more mechanically oriented guys can step in and give any details that I missed

11-18-2004 07:07 PM

joker

Re: pic: Team 60 Wheel Design

If anyone wants to email me at je.nelson@earthlink.net i have the autocad drawings and can explain what ever u need to know about the wheel. How it work to how to make it.

11-18-2004 07:57 PM

DCA Fan

Re: pic: Team 60 Wheel Design

Team 22 is doing a similar design of trapping the conveyor part inside the rims. Talk to them for more info.