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-   -   Welding? (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61804)

tgwalker 16-01-2008 11:16

Welding?
 
Are teams allowed to weld their robot together?

AndyB 16-01-2008 11:17

Re: Welding?
 
yes

Ross340 16-01-2008 11:18

Re: Welding?
 
Yes sir. 340 has been doing it for years. I learned to weld here and I love it.

Elgin Clock 16-01-2008 12:01

Re: Welding?
 
As everyone else said, yes.

The only word of caution that should be added is that if you break a weld (say on your frame) at a competition, you CAN NOT fix that weld in your pit area, but have to bring it to the FIRST approved machine shop at the event which may or may not be full from other teams using it.

Just something to think about.

mathking 16-01-2008 16:11

Re: Welding?
 
We had a welded chassis last year and loved it. One thing we did do was figure out how to fix a broken joint without welding in case it happened. It never did (not even when we were knocked off a high ramp) but what we came up with was bringing some oversized square tubing (our chassis was made of 1x1 square aluminum tubing) that could be quickly cut and bolted across the broken area. We did a quick practice run (on some spare tubing) and it only took us about 10 minutes to cut the big tubing to the right size, drill holes and put in bolts. If you want to do something like this remember to make the size of your robot a little bit less and 28" x 38" so you won't break the size rules.

Ross340 16-01-2008 16:42

Re: Welding?
 
Just lay down good welds. Then it won't happen. :) And if you break a weld at FLR or Championship, Just call me (Ross Temple) down, and I'll fix er' up for you. Assuming I'm not driving ;)

AdamC 16-01-2008 18:08

Re: Welding?
 
As a rule of thumb, we (395) never weld. First of all, we don't have the facilities, tools, or training to do it, and we are also afraid of breaking a weld and being unable to repair it in time. We're much more fond of cutting notches in the chassis and bolting the thing together using pressed nylon inserts.

BigJ 16-01-2008 18:45

Re: Welding?
 
1675 builds their robot in a welding shop!
(Well, metal-fab shop.)

We weld a lot of stuff. And yes, last year we had a weld break in atlanta. Did you see the pic in the kickoff intro with the kid yelling and grabbing at the driver's station wall? Yeah, a professional photographer snapped a shot of his face as the 'bot was falling over.

Everything got fixed before our next match, though :)



I don't know how to weld though, I'm a programmer!

MDodge27 16-01-2008 18:53

Re: Welding?
 
our team: Laser Robotics Team 2077 has a sponsorship with the amazing local company Generac. They make all of our parts in aluminum. therefore we never have to weld.

eshteyn 16-01-2008 19:32

Re: Welding?
 
welding works fine if you know how to do it right, just have spares

remember for aluminum go fast and hot (im assuming your using aluminum for weight purposes)

sanddrag 16-01-2008 20:27

Re: Welding?
 
Welding is a great way to build a robot frame. Very strong and lightweight. You would be amazed at the pounds you can save by eliminating all the fasteners and joining hardware. However, an FRC robot frame should really be TIG welded by an experienced professional. Also, issues can arise such as heat affected zones, and warping. If done properly, welds should not break, however you should have a plan to fix it by bolting/etc if you do happen to break one at competition.

mattotters 16-01-2008 20:44

Re: Welding?
 
People have broken welds? not the metal?

Wayne Doenges 17-01-2008 07:07

Re: Welding?
 
Team 1501 will have a welded Chrome Moly frame again this year.

BanksKid 17-01-2008 08:18

Re: Welding?
 
if your doing aluminium make sure you have someone experianced welding it.....if not youll waste alot of time and material maby even a TIG

IKE 17-01-2008 08:44

Re: Welding?
 
We weld a lot of aluminum, and do not profess to be pros.We had a weld break at Detroit last year, but had a spare part. the usual failure is due to heat effected zones loosing their heat treat and using thin section, there is a lot of fatigue cracks (and yes some breaks) in the post season. If you use 6061 T6 and do not post heat treat forget the T6 portion when doing your strength calcs and assume you have annealed 6061. I.E. 40KSI aluminum becomes 8KSI aluminum.
If you don't have a good welder (both machine and person running it), stick to other joint methods. There are a lot of great teams that avoid welding. If you have a good welder (both machine and person) You can do some amazing weight saving. Make sure you make spares of high impact parts because the loads they take may shock you.


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