Sheet metal vs Tubing Chassis

[BrendanB]

Something to consider when working with an outside company making parts is determining to what quantity of parts and how long they can support you. Some companies can support as many parts as a team needs and for however long into the season you need them which is good to know if you might need replacements or redesign something. Other companies can only support teams once or in small batches of parts so some teams have multiple shops who help them out but to the casual observer it looks like all the fancy parts came from one shop.

Good communication with your sponsors can lead to a long, successful relationship.

Once you know what is out there and what you have in your control (in house such as machines, knowledge, and finances for COTS parts) evaluate where those resources would be best used. Most teams use their sponsors to develop custom drivebases while others utilize their sponsors for manipulators and upper assemblies.

Good luck!

[philso]

Make sure your new sheet metal vendor can supply you the parts WHEN you need them. One of the local teams showed up at a tournament with their competition bot in the bag and only half built. Their sheet metal vendor gave them the parts the day before bag and tag.

[asid61]

I would do a tube frame and save the sheet metal resource for superstructures, personally. Making a WCD nowadays takes very little time, and for us at least it makes more sense to go with that rather than use our sponsor's time making the chassis for us.
However, having flanged sheet metal for superstructures is very lightweight and nice IMO.