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Originally Posted by Andrew Blair
Ok, our team is considering a welded frame and cantilevered drivetrain for next year, but I've heard many horror stories regarding broken welds, permanently bent frames and destroyed drivetrains because of a dent in a frame member. Tell me your horror stories, what happened, and if it can be avoided. Are welds prone to break in a certain style of game and can less-than-aerospace quality welds withstand tough play, especially if braced properly? Is 1/8" tube capable of an aggressively defensive style of play, and how badly do drivetrains suffer when you're somewhat out of square?
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Fusion has been using welded frames and custom transmissions at least since 2003 on Squid bot, the years before that I cannot be sure about except for Flash, Fusion's first robot, that has a welded frame if I remember correctly. We have not had any trouble with the frame, but at IRI in 2005 with Arm-N-Ra our arm was welded to a gear, and the weld broke and our arm came crashing down, but that was a weak point in the design of the robot. 5 more ounces of aluminum would have saved us. Also at IRI 2006, a chain in our transmission lost its master link lock and fell apart. Those are the only two problems Fusion has had with the robots in the past 2 years.