Re: Wheels: Metal or Plastic?
 

I prefer going to a shop that specializes in conveyor belting because they have a wider variety of materials to choose from than McMaster.

We have used razor blades, hacksaws, tin snips, a bandsaw and other methods but what still gives us the cleanest most precise cut is a pair of scissors that are very sharp.

Re: Wheels: Metal or Plastic?
 

When you buy this belting from mcmaster, which material do you order? I see the rough top comes in several varieties. We used the rough top tread that comes with the plaction wheels this year to great advantage but I am not sure exactly which material in mcmasters catalog it is.
Any thoughts? I'll probably send an e-mail to andymark if you guys dont know.
Thanks
Bruce

Re: Wheels: Metal or Plastic?
 

I'm 95% sure the material is nitrile.

Re: Wheels: Metal or Plastic?
 

I believe AndyMark sells natrual rubber tread. The Nitrile is usually blue or black.

I would suggest trying different options to find what works best. The answer is not always obvious, and we went through many materials to arrive at the material we swear by now.

Think about how the material is used and what it does. Don't just use what everyone else does. Treat this the same way you would treat any other engineering problem and look at trade offs between materials and what the requirements are. I have rarely found a team that comes up with the correct reasons for choosing a tread material.

Re: Wheels: Metal or Plastic?
 

The roughtop my team got from AndyMark was blue.

Re: Wheels: Metal or Plastic?
 

You should change that when you're on the red alliance.

Re: Wheels: Metal or Plastic?
 

I stand corrected. I've only noticed them with the tan colored tread shown on the website.

Re: Wheels: Metal or Plastic?
 

we use mechanum drive for our competition bots