pic: Team 2168 - The Aluminum Falcons' 2014 Robot

[lnex1357]

Originally Posted by TD78

How do you like that lexan tubing? I noticed you appear to be using two 1"x1" square tubes. What is the wall thickness? Is 1"x2" just not an option? I do like the lightweight and flexbility...did you try and impact testing to see how much it would actually take to damage a tube beyond repair?

Tom,

We puchased the polycarb tube from McMaster. The wall thickness is .080" for the 1 x 1 (3161T31) we used, if you purchase 3/4 x 3/4 you can get 1/16" wall. We searched a number of places trying to find 2 x 1 but couldnt seem to locate anything other than 2 x 1 PVC. I would be overjoyed if there was a supplier for 2 x 1.

We never hammered on it, but it has been run into many times, and simply flexed and sustained scratches. The way we looked at it, is for the weight savings we would rather have one flex and/or break rather than have an aluminum one bend and bend other pieces of the intake with it. Its hard to see from the picture but we also have 1/4" poly carb plates as pivot point for our intake. These plates are nested inside the rather "beefy" pivot blocks. The end result is that the 1/4" poly plate combined with the 1 x 1 poly tube allows our intake to mantaine sufficent rigidity while collecting and traveling but flexs on impact with the wall or other other robots.