Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

1.5" square x 1/8" aluminum with some major drilling going on to it. Not too much on our arm so it should be plenty strong.

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

For the second year we are using some 1 and 1.25'' aluminum tube with 1/16 wall.enough to It was strong enough to lift our robot last year and is really lightweight. It is not the easiest of things to work with because it is round, but it would be rigid enough to do anything you need to do.

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

We decided to just go all out this year. You can either come to play or just go home.

Part 9081K696 from McMaster was the first thing we ordered at kickoff.

Matt

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

He lies!

9081K696
(Same as 9081K69)Titanium Grade 5 Rectangle 1" Thick, 3" Wide, 6' Length$2,274.36 Each. Usually ships within 1 week.

:p

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

If they only use about 8% of its length, can they prorate the cost? :p

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

Our team has decided to use this for the arm this year. We haven't tried it out yet, but we are pretty sure it is the way to go. Have any other teams had any success using this stuff? I think eventually FIRST teams will start to catch on and you will see this stuff all over robots in the future.

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

That is awesome stuff. It is the wierdest thing I have ever held. With your eyes closed, someone could set it in your hand and you would never even know. I think it goes just a smidget over the cost limit though. :)

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

Carl, I'm embarrassed that you're in the same major as me at Purdue. You really annoy me sometimes, for stating such obvious things like this.

Seriously, it's obvious that every good team will be using it. We're using it to build our chassis and even using some wire EDM to cut spur gears out of it. (Only for the initial stages of the gear train, using hardened steel in the later ones of course.)

Chief Delphi is only supposed to be used for important engineering discussions, not discussing obvious material selections. I can't believe you're going to be my roommate next semester. :ahh:

Matt

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

Matt, I agree that it would make an excellent chassis material but I don't see any way you could possibly make gears out of it. Do you understand the forces on the teeth of these gears? I think you've been breathing aerogel fumes too long. You will be better off making your gears out of some grade 5 titanium. I hear McMaster stocks that stuff.

By the way, does anyone know the coefficient of friction of aerogel on carpet? Thanks.

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

Ugh, I just reran the numbers. No, you can't use it on gears unless you have a pitch of about 4. I looked into the titanium. Good call.

After that I went back to the lab did some quick tests of the Aerogel on a FIRST carpet sample and got about 1.1 or 1.3. I didn't think about using it on wheels. Again, good call.

I take back my harsh comments from before. I'm glad that you're a Purdue engineer. I just wish you could be on the cool FIRST team that Purdue sponsors instead of that old school one. I'll forgive you.

Matt

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

Matt, Carl,

You sly dogs... you have us thinking that you are using this Aerogel stuff, but all the while you are using nanotubes. I mean, heck, all you have to do is walk across campus and grab a wheelbarrow full of the stuff. Sheesh.

Andy B.

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

I think this thread should officially be renamed, "Purdue Sponsored FIRST Team's Secret Materials List - Revealed!"

I guess it's my fault. I started talking about our titanium arm, then Carl piped in about the Aerogel, and then Andy dropped our biggest secret - the nanotubes.

I openly confess that the new nanotechnology engineering park they're building is actully just to ensure that Purdue sponsored FIRST teams get a massive edge with their building materials. The secret it out.

Too much has been said already...

Matt

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

For those of us without access to unusual materials, I posted a spreadsheet for figuring out what materials in McMaster-Carr might be appropriate. Here's the link: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pa...le&paperid=427

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

CABLE TRAYS!!!

One of our sponsors is a supplier for "cable trays" which are aluminum, well, trays with the sides bent up--great for extending arms. plenty beefy too, we used 'em last year for hanging, and they held all 130 lbs of bot! :yikes:
Thank you Globe Pacific!

(pst! wanna see some cable trays? go to one of those parking garages in your downtown area, and look up. they'll probably be all over the place to organize wire distribution over the building. and in the garage they're not hidden by the ceiling. ;) )

~Stephanie
Team 1351

Re: What kind of material will you be using for your arm/forklift?
 

Thats awesome. Very clever yea we just posted our first teaser (cough cough) we have a good idea for our arm including a few different materials one of them being aluminum.