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Unread 14-01-2007, 14:27
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Andrew Blair Andrew Blair is offline
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Re: Lexan side panel thickness?

As long as it's properly attached and supported, Lexan as thin as 1/16" may protect you. 3/32 or 1/8" is a safer bet though. I would not recommend using anything thicker than that unless it is really unsupported, or protecting something that's gonna be chewed on. The weight penalty is not necessary, as something thinner will do the same job. More often than not, you'll see the lexan pull, deform and bend instead of simply breaking, and if the shield fails, it'll be because of attachment failure. We've bent 1/4"-20 bolts 90* while the Lexan mostly deforms around the bend.

It's hard to make it really fail. Although, as said before, it will get scratched up as time wears on, but almost entirely it will be due to robot contact, not incidental out-of-match wear.
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