pic: Floating Zip Tie Chain Tensioner
 

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Thats sweet. How do yall make sure all the zipties are in place. Does it work as well as mcmasters? Did yall ever have problems with zipties breaking and the tensioners falling off?

Re: pic: Floating Zip Tie Chain Tensioner
 

Ha! That is a neat idea!

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The zip ties fall in the three slots on the top and bottom and they actually worked better than mcmaster's for us. The reason being is that tensioning them meant replacing a zip tie. So if you didn't have enough tension, pull the zip ties. Too much, cut them and put a new one. The zip ties never broke because they were rated at 75 lbs each. We implemented them after I saw that mcmaster's were giving us way too much trouble. These can be made by buying u channel of uhmw or by cncing out blocks of uhmw.

We replaced the mcmaster's during Nationals with our new ones.

Re: pic: Floating Zip Tie Chain Tensioner
 

very nice, were there any problems at the championship?

Re: pic: Floating Zip Tie Chain Tensioner
 

The only one was that we did not cut the ends of the zip ties so they got stuck to the chain. That was a nightmare.



Here's a darker render.

Re: pic: Floating Zip Tie Chain Tensioner
 

hmm i would expect that was second nature, were you in a rush?

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Yes we were, it was a minute before our 4th match at nationals.

Re: pic: Floating Zip Tie Chain Tensioner
 

patent it.


i'm serious.

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how???

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I am sure there are a ton of guides on how to do that online, Google it!

Like try this, http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/howtopat.htm

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You've got to file an official patent.

IT GETS EXPENSIVE TO PATENT SOMETHING:

but the first thing to do is to have a researcher do a patent search...where somebody searches through all the previously issued patents to see if there is an invention that currently exists.

if there isn't then you can file for a patent which tend to take several years to issue.

Patenting this could get pricey, but it may be something your team is interested in.

I think it is a great little idea, and great little ideas should be taken care of.

Re: pic: Floating Zip Tie Chain Tensioner
 

Back in '07 I saw Team 8 put a zip-tie around a chain on their roller-claw :yikes: Now there's a simple method!

I'm curious about what happens when the blocks twist around. I mean, the zip-ties aren't gonna hold them perfectly flush like that. What happens when they twist and jam into the side of the chain?

We had these kinds of problems when we used delrin tensioners in our '06 drive train. The chain was always grinding against the sides of the slots we cut in the delrin. Wasted a lot of power that way.

Very creative though. I like the way you think :cool:

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You just gave everyone here a "Why didn't I think of that?" moment.

Great Idea.

If you go along with Brandon's Idea to patent, and possibly sell it, may I suggest small Hose clamps as an alternative to zipties? It would make it larger and heavier, but also possible to adjust in two directions. It would also keep the tensioner in one piece, so that users cannot lose the second half of it. Finally, it would make it more robust. This would help its use in applications with larger chain/greater power use than FIRST.

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do remember that if you patent it you have to give everyone due credit and a piece of the pie