Is powder coating and annodizing worthwhile?

[lemiant]

Is powder coating and annodizing worthwhile? Many top teams do it, and yet I can't shake the feeling that consuming a whole days to send parts to the powder shop is a huge cost, when you could have that extra day for driving.

[Cory]

Our manufacturing schedule is such that not everything is ever done all at once.

We make our frames and gearbox plates before we have all our shafts, gears, etc finished, so time spent waiting for anodize/powdercoat to come back usually does not come into play. Sometimes it does however, and you're already committed so you just have to live with it.

We've been lucky enough to have a powdercoat sponsor who normally turns around our parts in under 8 hours and an anodize shop that usually is able to do our parts fairly quickly as well.

It definitely makes a huge difference in terms of making your robot look more professional.

[R1ffSurf3r]

Originally Posted by lemiant

Is powder coating and annodizing worthwhile? Many top teams do it, and yet I can't shake the feeling that consuming a whole days to send parts to the powder shop is a huge cost, when you could have that extra day for driving.

Yes

Whats the point of driving well if you don't do it in style!

[BigJ]

I guess it can depend. Is image a big thing to your team? If yes, then probably yes.

UPS has an anodizing sponsor, and image is pretty important to us. Gotta rep the brown and gold.

[AdamHeard]

I do my best to run my team as if we were a real engineering firm, making real products. An important part of that is creating a product that looks good.

Also, it seems to help immensely when it comes to impressing sponsors, prospective students, the community, etc...

[jblay]

To add on what has already been said:

A big part of the competition especially at the national level is having your robot be memorable in some way. The robots that look stunning even when they struggle, end up in the eliminations more often than those that perform at the same level but don't look as professional.

The satisfaction of having an awesome looking robot also has its plus in that it motivates your team to have the robot perform at the level it looks like it should.

[wevets]

It's not necessary to the functioning of the robot, and over their lives, our robots are not subject to any hazards from which power coating and/or annodizing will protect them.

Then again, as Billy Crystal used to say in his impersonation of Recardo Mantalban on Saturday Night Live: "It is better to look good than to feel good"

On yet another hand, there is nothing that looks as shabby as a powder coated robot that has been banged around, chipped, etc. And as noted in a previous post, unless you can turn your powder coating/annodizing around pretty quickly, having your robot out for a few days to make it look pretty can really hurt in a 6-week schedule.

In the end, like most other decisions a team makes, its a trade off. If looking pretty is important, and you like the look of powder coating and/or annodizing, and you can protect the robot finish as you work on the robot, and it doesn't impact the schedule negatively, go for it.

Personally, I like the honest, functional look of bare metal.

[Borobo]

I don't know about powder coating, but I know our team used to anodize most of our frames and astructural components, but we stopped, I think just because the pros: spiffy robot, matching with team colors, just wasn't worth the time and delay it took to get it done.

Well, it all depends. You have to look at WHY you're having a robot powder coated and/or anodized. If you're like us, who each year end up taking parts from the old robot to use on the new one, then there's no use. If you keep each robot, or you plan to be using it after competition, then you can have it power coated and anodized. Team 256 has never really had a robot powder coated or anodized, but when we need color, "we do what we must, because we can", by means of spray paint and colored duct tape, which not only makes our robots look good, but makes them 30% more functional!

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Cory

Our manufacturing schedule is such that not everything is ever done all at once.

We make our frames and gearbox plates before we have all our shafts, gears, etc finished, so time spent waiting for anodize/powdercoat to come back usually does not come into play. Sometimes it does however, and you're already committed so you just have to live with it.

We've been lucky enough to have a powdercoat sponsor who normally turns around our parts in under 8 hours and an anodize shop that usually is able to do our parts fairly quickly as well.

It definitely makes a huge difference in terms of making your robot look more professional.

How would we go about getting sponsors who will do these for us? I mean, they must expect something in return if they are willing to sponsor a team.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

How would we go about getting sponsors who will do these for us? I mean, they must expect something in return if they are willing to sponsor a team.

One thing I think is standard among powdercoat sponsors is to not ask for colors which are out of ordinary from their production colors (if it is a company that manufactures something). If its an actual powdercoat shop, then you could approach them the same way you do any other company. Offer them advertisement etc.

[Hawiian Cadder]

i think team guss used a type of paint and fooled everyone into thinking their robot was powder coated. they just painted each part as it came off the machine line, and the next day it was ready to go. minimal time down, and paint can look really really good.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Hawiian Cadder

i think team guss used a type of paint and fooled everyone into thinking their robot was powder coated. they just painted each part as it came off the machine line, and the next day it was ready to go. minimal time down, and paint can look really really good.

Us, and many others get same day turnaround with powdercoating.

[,4lex S.]

Here are the situations I think this is worthwhile in:

1) Your robot is going to be competing on the national stage, and you want to be identifiable and memorable.

2) You feel that having a more professional looking robot will bring in more sponsors/new members/supporters.

In Formula SAE, most teams powder coat their chassis. The reason for this is that the overall basis of our competition is to 'sell' our design for a small production racecar. If we didn't have to sell our design, it would be tempting to ignore it altogether to save a bit of weight and time (every gram counts).

Don't let pretty things distract you from your engineering goals, unless they give you some advantage (if it is a non-engineering advantage, it is just as important).

[dtengineering]

For small parts you can do the anodizing in your own shop... just borrow a bit of sulphuric acid from the Chem lab. There are really good instructions on line for setting up your own anodizing line.

I've never felt it wise to paint or powder coat, however, just in the event that you ever need to make an emergency repair using a welder. With bare aluminum your surface prep is pretty minimal... the paint or powder coat would just be one more layer to be cleaned off. Not bad if you've got a power wire wheel, but we don't pack those to our pit area.

Often, however, we would polish exposed aluminum parts, and cover the unpolished parts with painted polycarbonate that could be removed quickly and easily. There was usually at least one student on the team who really excelled at "making things shiny".

Then we realized that we were being silly making robots out of aluminum and switched to wood, where a couple quick coats of lacquer and a bit of sanding take it from looking cheap to looking awesome... but there's another thread about that!

Jason