Image Discuss: 1038 Treads
 

looks nice

Very Nice
 

it looks very nice, two things about your sides though
The lexan looks very nice but any impacts to it could create very many pieces or atleast big cracks

and Lexan on large surfaces tend to crack during extended vibration, such as moveing during a robot competition. If it is not lexan, then disregard the statements above. If it is lexan, make sure you have extra sides made.

VERY VERY NICE LOOKS

Re: Very Nice
 

It is Lexan, and it won't break, no matter what happens. Team 144 used the same idea for it's base last year and it stood up through a regional and the national semifinals.

I tested Lexan at Miami University with liquid nitrogen, dropping a steel block onto a 4x4 sheet of 1/8" Lexan after being soaked in the liquid nitrogen, and it didn't even crack.

Needless to say, we are pretty confident in the rigidity of our design.

Re: Re: Very Nice
 

It looks like 3/8" polycarbonate, so I'd guess that'll probably be plenty strong for your needs.

It is possible, however, to break polycarbonate in competition; particularly by bending. While it's great at withstanding impacts, if something manages to grab between your timing pulleys and polycarbonate, it will break.

We know. We broke 1/4" polycarbonate last season.

It's 1/2" Lexan...
I didn't mean to imply that is impossible to break Lexan, I was just saying that in this situation it would prove very difficult if not impossible. We also have broken some Lexan in past competitions. I believe it was 2 years ago when we had made Lexan hooks to pull the goal around and one of them snapped from the turning force of the goal... so in other words, by bending it, like you said. I just can't imagine an instance this year when that will be a problem, with the setup that we have.

Silly mentor...

Chris is actually wrong. We could not get our hands on any lexan this year. Fortunately, we got some really cool 3/16" acrylic to make our machine clear.

polycarb is AMAZING...
 

I cannot say enough good things about polycarb (though we are not using much this year).

It is SO tough (in the engineering sense of the word -- implying resistance to impact).

I really like this material.

If it is indeed polycarb on the side of the machine, you have no worries about it getting damaged short of some sort of pyrotectnical loophole in the rules ;-)

Joe J.

Re: Re: Re: Very Nice
 

Yeah ... Ricky broke the panels on TOBOR V three times - once at MMR (put a nice big dent in it), once at a demo for Plexus (another nice dent) and once at Appleton's Octoberfest (cracked on of the corners). They were made of 1/8" polycarb too!

Polycarb is great. Don't use acrylic!

- Katie

I helped machine the sides of the treds you see above and the lexan is quite strong. I know it will withstand most anything out there short of a mortar. I hope my rookie team(with our lexan) gets to face some of you anti-lexan fans. Another good use for it is that it makes great gifts if uyou machine them good enough! ;)

Crispy nice work with the lexan for crazy linux girl

TEAM 1038 is goin all rookie in cleveland!