Quote:
Originally Posted by baronep
So, our team in the off season built a project that used custom laser-cut aluminum parts made out of 1/8" sheet. This thickness was good for our design in which we required extra-rigidity and we had no weight requirements. My question is how does someone optimize weight and rigidity. How do you know in a CAD model if your sheetmetal part is going to fail or not (we use Solidworks) and what thickness of sheetmetal is typical on a 148 style robot?
Thanks
PB
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I can answer specifically what is on a 148 robot. All of our sheetmetal is either .125", .090", or .063" 5052 aluminum. On some parts like gears or sprockets, we will use .125" 6061 aluminum. All of these were chosen because it's what our sponsor carries in stock, and these three thicknesses provide a pretty good range of options for FRC robots.
For the most part, how we choose which thickness to use depends on where the part is. Chassis parts are usually .125", as are any other main frame pieces. Secondary frame parts and arms and such usually get .090". End-effectors and anything that experiences minimal load or contact gets .063". Basically, whatever we think is the thinnest we can get away with on a part. If you design your parts smartly, with flanges and support bracing in the right places, you can get away with thinner material just about everywhere.