Advise for Galvanized Steel

[yash101]

I wouldn't say "significantly stronger" but yeah, it can be stronger per unit of weight.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by yash101

I wouldn't say "significantly stronger"

The difference is large enough to be noticed, for purposes of FRC use.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by yash101

I don't get why not to put copper with steel. I connect copper to steel, once in a while!
By you saying "electrolysis," do you mean that it will break up water when you electrolyze it and place it inside water?

Um, we are talking about galvanized steel, so the copper would be coming into contact with zinc. Go look up what happens when copper and zinc are in contact with each other. Can you say... "battery"?

You can perform electrolysis with many materials, not just water.

Originally Posted by MrBasse

I always cringe when new people are jumped on for spreading misinformation... but I feel that this is a time for learning as well.

You can weld galvanized steel with no issues as long as you use proper equipment. You do not get zinc poisoning from the fumes.

Thank you MrBasse for the elaboration.

My concern was not the zinc fumes, but weld spatter. Glavanized spits out molten globs of metal a LOT more than other materials.

I did not say it couldn't be welded, just that this particular person should not try it.

I stand corrected.

[jman4747]

So if I have the tooling and can keep the weight down why not save the money? And if I get 3 times as much free sheet steel wouldn't it just be better to save the money and be smart about its use?

Basically what I'm getting at is it isn't as simple as Steel is denser or aluminum is less rigid. For instance at the beginning of last build I found that a welded steel version of the kit-bot frame we used would be several times more rigid and cheaper. It would only have been about 2-5lbs heavier and that robot was 98lbs at inspection. We didn't posses the tooling to work it quick enough yet so we scraped it.

Witch metal to use has to do with the circumstances surrounding the team and the build.

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by jman4747

Witch metal to use has to do with the circumstances surrounding the team and the build.

This statement can be generalized to "material choices are context-dependent," or "design choices are context-dependent," or even "essentially all utility calculations are context-dependent." It is good to keep in mind the difference between a heuristic rule and a fundamental principal - general statements about "optimal materials for FRC" are quite clearly of the former sort, and you should thus interpret them as such.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by yash101

I wouldn't say "significantly stronger" but yeah, it can be stronger per unit of weight.

Well.... 7075 is twice as strong as certain steels, so yeah, it is "significantly stronger"