Quote:
Originally Posted by Gdeaver
Our choice of the 32t HTD5 pulley is part historical and torque requirements. Do not under estimate the abuse the steering components take. The 15 mm belts do stretch over the life of the robot and our key ways do loosen up. That's after a whole season with over a hundred hours of drive time. It sucks up enough of the build season with just boring the pulleys. I don't want to add the time to make them. If we could find a cots pulley I would buy it to save time. Custom pulleys add cost and lead time.
|
This certainly depends on the team and their specific resources.
We now have the resources in house, and at sponsors, to make a pulley with all the pocketing and mounting holes (for a bolt circle) we might desire out of solid stock in about 10 minutes of machine time (this includes a 2nd op on a manual lathe to face to thickness) per pulley, and at a lower material cost than purchasing pulleys. This reduces both cost and lead time (for us).
There are certainly many cases where COTS is the better option.
What's really key is constantly re-evaluating your own resources and best designing to match what you have (and also pushing to add resources to fill the holes you have).