need help findinga conveyor that can be modified to hold a ball

[wardawg]

were trying to use a coveyor in our design to guide the ball into our shooting mechanism sort of like in the 2009 FRC competion. But we cant seem to find the right conveyor. please help links, companies, or numbers to other teams that are using or have used this will help. thanks! =)

[Jon Stratis]

I doubt you'll find an off-the-shelf conveyor that'll work... every conveyor system i've seen on a robot has been something the team has designed and built themselves.

Figure out the material you want to use on the conveyor (do some searching on here, there is plenty of discussion). Figure out what you want your rollers to be made of, how you're going to mount them, and how you're going to power them. Put it all together and you have a working conveyor!

[DonRotolo]

Also look at 2009 robot photos for ideas.

Some teams use Urethane Belting as the conveyer, two-to-five strands in parallel might be effective. For end pulleys, some teams use 1.5" - 2" PVC pipe, driven by a relatively slow motor (i.e. through a reduction gearbox) at the top & bottom.

The belt grabs the ball and rolls it up the robot, on a plate of Lexan placed about 6-7" from the belts.

Of course, there are many materials: We've used cloth, shelf sticky-foam-liner, urethane belting, even rope.

Prototype!

[kinganu123]

we used pneumatic tubing....
cut to length then melt them together with a soldering iron

[craigcd]

Try these guys

http://www.intralox.com/

They gave away free samples at the kick off at Stennis Space Center

This is what we are using and it works great

[LinuxArchitect]

Originally Posted by craigcd

Try these guys

http://www.intralox.com/

They gave away free samples at the kick off at Stennis Space Center

This is what we are using and it works great

Which of their products are you talking about? Thanks!

[2544HCRC]

We are using 6" belting from a local industrial supply house. It was an extra piece and they are having someone join the ends for us. As for pulleys we are using a piece of 4" sewer pipe with ends made from solid PVC from McMaster Carr. The plastic will be turned down in a lathe to fit in the pipe and a 5/8 hole bored in the center for one of the anodized shafts that came in the kit. We are driving the conveyor with a urethane belt on a drive pulley. We're stuck on a gearbox. We were going to use an AndyMark box but they are out of stock again and I don't think we can wait and risk them being out of stock again.

[craigcd]

Series 1100 flush surface straigh belt .62 pitch rubber coated top surface 3" wide and we are using 3" sprockets Send me a PM

[Coach Norm]

Can you make custom lengths? or do you order in the lengths you need?

What is the cost of the material?

Thanks

[andrewthecow]

If you're asking about the Intralox stuff, team 3753 is using it as well. I'm not sure about the pricing because it was free to teams at the Stennis space center kickoff(though I'm sure we'll need to find out in order to do a BOM), but i think it's around $20/foot. It's really high quality commercial stuff and they custom make the shafts that you need. It is also really easy to "break" apart and rejoin it so that you can adjust the length easily.The only inconvenience we've run into is that it doesn't hold tension very well and needs a solid backing behind it(i.e. sheet metal, plywood, plastic sheeting, anything that can be rounded off where it won't get caught on the belt).

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by kinganu123

we used pneumatic tubing....
cut to length then melt them together with a soldering iron

You used actual pneumatic tubing? You really don't want to do that. It's a pretty horrible material for conveyor belting.

[JCharlton]

Lynxmotion treads work well:

http://www.lynxmotion.com/c-94-tracks.aspx

Not super-cheap, but very sticky surface and smooth running with little drag on the motors.

[Newo95]

our team is using several strands of surgical tubing running in loops next to eachother (like several small conveyer belts). So far we have had problems with them stretching too much, but it looks like as long as they have enough tension they should work well.