[archiver]

Posted by Andy Baker at 1/25/2001 12:57 PM EST


Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.


In Reply to: ONLY 3 FAILURES!
Posted by Joe Johnson on 1/25/2001 12:32 PM EST:



OK, here are some explainations:

Three failures:
'99: TKO's tank treads had absolutely no slippage. We shredded one gearbox in Chicago. Also, we snapped two pins (screws) during non-important operating times. The gearbox failure was not due to the pin design.

'00: We went through the entire year (including 4 competitions) without any pin (screw) breakages. We just broke one last week, as we were driving TechnoBeast up and down the ramp. I think that the hole was kinda wallered out due to vigorous driving over the course of the year.

The fix was always to simply replace the gearbox and shaft with a new gearbox and shaft. Like I mentioned on a previous post, the switch is not too hard to do, if you have a backup already assembled. We will have backups this year, for sure.

As for sharing, I'm assuming that you're being sarcastic... we're given away this design! No, we didn't exactly tell people how to drill and tap the sensitive hole, but WE weren't even sure how it was done.

Here's how I do it:
I brings in 4 gearboxes and couplings to machine shop, and ask friend to pin the coupling to the hardened shaft by drilling and tapping all the way through for a #8-32 screw. They ask "why can't you do this"... I say "we've boogered up 4 gearboxes already, and we're giving up. I'll buy you a Dew if you can do it." About 2 hours later, I find the gearboxes and couplings assembled and lying on my desk.

Like I said, unless you're a darn good machinist, get a pro to do this for you.

By the way, this is the only part of our machine that we have "pros" make for us. We all have this capability... if other teams want the same, then they should go to a local machine shop and ask them to do this single task.

Your mileage may vary.

Andy B.