pic: Team 3824 Robot

[roffutt]

loading photo ...

[asid61]

Tell me more about this 3D printed chassis?

[akmess01]

The chassis is made on a large scale 3D printer. Instead of an 8"x8" build platform like common printers, this one has a 8'x8' build platform. The extruded beads and layer thicknesses are much larger and thus much larger parts can be made in reasonable time. All the black components on the robot are carbon fiber infused ABS and all the white components are glass fiber infused ABS.

[lovelj]

Made with BAAM (Big Area Additive Manufacturing). Look up the Strati and printed Cobra. See links below. HVA works in Oak Ridge National Labs Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. Before they printed the Strati, they used HVA as a test case. Their 2014 FRC robot was the first system printed on BAAM. It gave Local Motors, now one of their sponsors, confidence that BAAM (developed by ORNL) could print a car. It takes about 2 hours to print their robot. They built 4 robots this year

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HXvIMRklWiM

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=daioWlkH7ZI

[lovelj]

On the printed Cobra... It took 6 weeks to go from saying we wanted to print a new car to having it on the road. Wonder where "6 weeks" came from???

[Ichlieberoboter]

That looks perty epic!

[asid61]

Originally Posted by lovelj

On the printed Cobra... It took 6 weeks to go from saying we wanted to print a new car to having it on the road. Wonder where "6 weeks" came from???

I mean, cars are easy in 6 weeks. All they have to do is move; they don't have to shoot frisbees or place things or get driver practice.
It's cool how much they accomplished though, with the testing and methods.

That is a really cool 3D printer/ method of making the chassis. What kind of materials can they do? How long did it take to print the robot?

[lovelj]

Originally Posted by asid61

I mean, cars are easy in 6 weeks. All they have to do is move; they don't have to shoot frisbees or place things or get driver practice.
It's cool how much they accomplished though, with the testing and methods.

That is a really cool 3D printer/ method of making the chassis. What kind of materials can they do? How long did it take to print the robot?

The printer runs at between 10 and 40 lbs per hour. The majority of the robot is printed. It has about 25 lbs worth of printed parts (chassis, forklift, truss...) so under 2 hrs. The material we used is glass and carbon fiber filler ABS. BAAM uses pellets as the feedstock so it's cheap ($2 to $5 per pound). So the total cost for their printed parts on the robot was. $100. We are putting together a much larger printer, 8'x20x6' with a new extruder that runs at 100 lbs/hr. We are going to try to print HVA a new pit for Championship

[SoccerTaco]

Here is a picture of the 3D printed Shelby Cobra, for those that did not watch the video.



Our robot did not get a nice paint job like that
But it is still inspiring for the kids to look at that car, and their robot, and know they were both produced with the same technology. Some of the people that worked on that car are alumni of Team 3824, which is also quite inspirational to the kids on the team right now.

[benherms]

Originally Posted by lovelj

The printer runs at between 10 and 40 lbs per hour. The majority of the robot is printed. It has about 25 lbs worth of printed parts (chassis, forklift, truss...) so under 2 hrs. The material we used is glass and carbon fiber filler ABS. BAAM uses pellets as the feedstock so it's cheap ($2 to $5 per pound). So the total cost for their printed parts on the robot was. $100. We are putting together a much larger printer, 8'x20x6' with a new extruder that runs at 100 lbs/hr. We are going to try to print HVA a new pit for Championship

So overall costs were below $100??
Why is everyone not doing this? Does anyone know where I can find a list of materials the company they used is proficient in 3D-Printing?

Very impressive use of additive manufacturing.

[Brian Selle]

Is the carbon fiber integrated as continuous fibers or as a "chopped" additive?

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by lovelj

The printer runs at between 10 and 40 lbs per hour. The majority of the robot is printed. It has about 25 lbs worth of printed parts (chassis, forklift, truss...) so under 2 hrs. The material we used is glass and carbon fiber filler ABS. BAAM uses pellets as the feedstock so it's cheap ($2 to $5 per pound). So the total cost for their printed parts on the robot was. $100. We are putting together a much larger printer, 8'x20x6' with a new extruder that runs at 100 lbs/hr. We are going to try to print HVA a new pit for Championship

There's a company that either makes or stores those pellets in columbia. I need to get me one of these large scale printers.

[Dominick Ferone]

where do you get/make of of these large scale printers?

[lovelj]

Originally Posted by Dominick Ferone

where do you get/make of of these large scale printers?

The technology is called BAAM (Big Area Additive Manufacturing). It's being commercialized by Cincinnati Inc. A few service bureaus are considering buying them. It's a fast and cheap way to make large composite parts.

[Necroterra]

I'm guessing that these large scale printers will be well beyond the price range of most (all?) FRC teams. In addition, roHAWKtics has on-site technical support for when things inevitably stop working on this brand new piece of technology. I think it will be a while before a significant number of teams can print large parts of their robot at this quality level.