Sheet metal vs Tubing Chassis

[philso]

Originally Posted by jkelleyrtp

We're not too sure at the moment as we just obtained the sponsor. I hear the standard turnaround time seems to be a week or so, but I have yet to find out what ours will be.

Be sure you understand the risks. You may want to start with non-critical parts that you can design early in the build season and that you can replace with parts that your team fabricates without the help of your sponsor. That "week or so" can easily get pushed out to a month or so when your sponsor gets a paying gig. This is assuming that they are donating the time and material to your team. I have situations where the delivery time for my prototype parts for work (that we pay to get made) be pushed out by our Purchasing Manager due to the capacity being needed for production parts

[lewislongbottom]

Our team used sheet-metal parts last year on both our chassis and multiple mechanisms, we learnt quite a few things... Mainly that by adding flanges to plates, you can greatly enhance the strength of parts even if the flange isn't long. The small things make a difference. We had a great turnaround time of 3-4 days so that was awesome. One thing to note is that a relationship with a fabrication sponsor can be greatly improved if you have strong communication with them, in other words, be very organized and straight forward and respect that they are providing this service free of charge and that you aren't their top priority. P.S. (Using the same software as your Fab Sponsor is also great because they can easily make changes to the part if necessary, and again helps in communication)

We have designed a WCD Chain-In Tube chassis this off-season, so we are wanting to see how that comes out. It does provide quite a lot of advantages, but with any system there are dis-advantages. We really like designing with "tubes", either it be 1" x 1" or 2" x 1". Interfacing your superstructure with your chassis can be difficult for some teams, but if you use a similar construction and design method, it can be somewhat simplified.

Good Luck! And congrats with going to Worlds last season, it was our first time too!!