Ramp Materials
 

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Aluminum with some type of gripping device on top:D

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carbon fiber panels. very lightweight and very strong. then we're putting a grippingmaterial over them for obvious reasons...

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We're planning on building the gripping material into the aluminum ramp....using a secret patented process.....

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Our team is using panels that are a composite of aluminum, plastic and styrofoam. It holds up very well.

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Aluminum extrusion frame (8020) and 8020 honeycomb paneling thats 1/8" thick (its just like cardboard but plastic)...and it is extremely light weight.

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Plastic storage shelves from Home Depot, with some aluminum to hold it together and grip material to distribute force and increase traction.

I'll tell you are problems when we actually test them.

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My team is VERY, VERY new, so any input from a veteran team would be appreciated. We have designed our ramp system, but do not know what material to build it out of. We have an aluminium fram completed but need a material to mount on it to support the robots we will lift. Weight is a slight issue, we have considered:

- Lexan
- 1/4 inch plywood
- Expanded Aluminium
- Expanded Steel

Any input on our ideas and especially NEW SUGGESTIONS would be wonderful, thanks...

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Steel is a definate no, and lexan can get up there in weight as well. Aluminum can be heavy but you could also cheese it if need be. Plywood can be heavy too especially in sheets for a ramp. Your best bet if you can get it would probably be diamond plate. It isnt that heavy, and it's alos strong. We're using carbon fiber with honeycomb filling but that is a little pricey. If you have the money i say do that.

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Plywood would probably be your best option, without the ability to purchase high priced composites or honey comb paneling, or fancy sheet metal working, plywood will provide your best strength and rigidity for the weight, and is very simple to work with. Typical softwood plywood has density per unit area around 13%-14% that of aluminum, and birch plywood around 23% that of aluminum. Because of the decreased density your moment of inertia about the thickness will be much greater for a similar weight and will provide much higher strength. Also plywood is dirt cheap when compared with aluminum so it will be much easier to keep spares on hand.

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1279 has used alumalite: https://www.harborsales.net/fullshee...Faced%20Panels

Light & easy to cut.

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Using: A semicircircular wheel, a TON of aluminum fencing, and an axle (aluminum shaft).

Problems: Danger to robots (we don't know if will may capsize with two robots)

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We're using carbon fiber for our ramps too--thin sheets with foam blocks sandwiched inbetween. We're only at the point where we're just about to mount them, though, and we're trying to figure out how many spares we'll need. Have you guys been playing around, seeing how much it takes to break them? It would be awesome to have some input.

And Matt Gardner, as for a suggestion for your team--like the others, I'd strongly consider using honeycomb (try going to mcmaster.com and type in "Aluminum Honecomb" into the search tab). It's not cheap, but it's very light for its strength (good enough to be used for floor panels in airplanes). :) There's also the added benefit of spending less time constructing the actual ramp, since it arrives at your lab all in one piece, and spending more time on the actuators.

Hope this helps.

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My first response would be to say aluminum angle and lexan, with cross supports underneath.

However, everyone is suggesting these new-fangled sandwiched materials. I'd suggest going with these, as I think thats what our ramp is being made from.

I'm pretty sure we got a few of our crew to go pillage the space shuttle, because whatever we found is some crazy stuff...

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I would look into corrugated plastic if...when weight becomes an issue. As long as you provide some support around it's edges to prevent bending, it has potential to work.

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Welded steel mesh from the ramp used in Stack Attack of 2003 on an aluminum frame. 27 inches wide, almost 10 feet long, ~23lbs

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carbon fiber sounds pretttttttttty good

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Aluminum & stuffff....

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Our team is now looking at Alumalite as a viable option (thanks Dad1279!). Does anyone know a local distributor of Alumalite? We are in Burlington, Ontario (In the Greater Toronto Area). We need at least 4'x10' sheet perferably in black/pink, but we'll buy whatever is cheap and available. We'd like to be able to pick it up Thursday if its close enough, because we don't have enough time really to have it shipped in...

Also, Dad1279, or someone from his team, or anyone who's dealt with alumalite...Do you know the mass per square foot of Alumalite? And is it really strong enough to support robots (with a proper frame, of course)?

Thanks again everyone, you've all been a great help...

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what is "Alumanite"?

never heard of it....google doesn't seem to know much about it....

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look on page one, there's a link somewhere...oh, and sory, I mispelled it a couple times its actually Alumalite

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Out of curiosity, what's the weight per square foot for a 1/4" or 3/8" thick piece? I wonder if it's worth our time to investigate replacing our corrugated polycabonate with this.

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From what I've researched (it does not seem that common) it is .375 lb./sq. ft. (for a 6mm thick piece) Our team figures our ramp covering would weigh only 10 lb. if using it (awesome). My only problem is that I cannot find many teams that have used this material and do not know how well it stands up to the weight of a robot. (Moreover, it comes in a variety of colours, also awesome)

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We're using a carbon fiber / foam sandwich that we made ourselves. Each 40" x 38" panel weighs around 4-5 lbs. We then have an aluminum kickstand and track that sits underneath the ramp with a FP/BaneBot winch to raise the kickstand. With the motor/winch/kickstand and ramp it comes to 10 lbs per ramp.

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It looks like Alumalite is a sign material, two thin sheets of aluminum with a corrugated plastic core. I didn't find any specs on how strong it is in bending in a quick google search. My wild guess is that it might work as a ramp material if you can support it well, perhaps every 6 inches or so (width). But it probably dents rather easily if you apply a concentrated load to it, and might buckle. Hard to say without more info....

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I realize the normal application, but it's not used for those little wimpy signs, either. If you look here:

http://www.signboards.com/Applications/index.asp

you can see the type of signs that its being used to build. I figure these need to be strong and impact-resistant just because they are always outside...

What I really need is feedback from someone who's used Alumalite in the past...anyone?

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If those signs can stand up to the occasional flying robot, they should be able work as ramp material? :)

I agree, you do need some input from someone who has played with the material, or used it on a robot or something. Since it's not a structral material, there seems to be no or very little structural info about it available.

If you can estimate the thickness of the aluminum layers, you could calculate the moment of inertia and estimate the bending strength under static loading conditions. As an example, I just calculated the stress due to bending, assuming a 6" wide ramp, 3 feet long, 100 lbs load at the center. Material .25" thick, each aluminum face 0.020" thick. The maximum bending stress would be about 70,000 psi, which is about four times the yield stress of soft aluminum, and about twice the yield stress of typical heat treated aluminum alloys.

So, you would need to provide support for the ramp about every foot of length to make it strong enough to adequately support a robot....is my guess....

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I can't really find anything about Alumalite used for something other than signs. Since it would be used in big sheets outdoors, it must be made to hold up against wind and rain. But doesn't that mean that bending isn't the force it needs to resist, since wind and rain probably hits the sign evenly? In addition, signs can have a lot of framing and support behind the surface, so it would probably have short distances between supports.
Impact is probably the only thing it's designed to resist, while I don't think it would work for a robot like 1712's since we need to save weight with as great a distance between supports as possible.

I could be wrong about all of that, but I'm just trying to figure this out. It just doesn't seem to me that Alumalite is the right kind of material for a platform/ramp surface.

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With the frame we are building at the moment we have supports about a foot apart, I do believe... I have to check up on that tomorrow...It's true that what really matters is what kind of weight it can support, mostly I'm just wishfully thinking. I'm trying to contact the company again tomorrow to see if I can find out more information. As for impacts, we hopefully won't have any, we want smooth driving up the ramp, and smooth driving off. We are using a totally different material for the sides as well, a much stronger one... and we're hoping no manipulators smash into our ramps, either...(again with the wishful thinking)

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Team 1676 is using a welded aluminum frame of 1" square stock with 1/16" wall, covered by 1/2" steel hardware cloth (looks like giant window screen with 1/2" holes) that is 'welded' at the intersections. The approx. 30" x 35" ramp weighs about 5 pounds.

Don

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We are using 3/4th aluminum square tubing, aluminum L-bracket, and steel mesh for the top....works well. Pics/Vid will be released in the near future (as soon as i remember to bring my camera to a meeting:cool: ).

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We are going to use Alumilite for at least part of our lifters. The stuff seems REALLY strong. I believe we are planning to use it unsupported across a section about 2' X 3'. I don't know if the stuff comes in different thicknesses, but ours is about 3/8" thick. We chose it because it is for the ramp that leads up to out lifters, and it needs to be almost indestructible because of the impact from robots driving into it.

The only thing we don't like about it is the price. It is $200 for a 4' X 8' piece!

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Can you walk up the 2' x 3' ramp without hurting it? If so, then it's stronger than I thought.

Can you measure how thick the metal covering is?

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We are using punched stainless steel (total frame weight about 40 lbs.)

Using one 2" piston, we can lift a total of 200 lbs per wing.

Pictures coming soon.

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It seems my team must scrap our alumalite idea, because alas, we have no idea how long it would take to ship it to Canada. But we've already found a replacement, it seems, and it should add <20 lbs. to our robot, JOY!