Team 4592 Offseason Drivetrain

[thatprogrammer]

Originally Posted by Chris Endres

The overall design looks good, we built a similar design a few years back for a fall project and it worked well.

My first question: Why chain? I don't want to start any fights, but I personally feel that belts and pulleys would better in this situation. This is because getting the chain tension properly may be a problem, and making a dead axle hole with a CNC router or water jet or whatever you are using to cut your sheet metal is pretty easy and precise.

Primary concern: The side plates cannot be made the way they are now because of the bending geometry. You should redesign so there are two plates on each side that hold the wheel (basically split the middle plate in two). Of course, this would kind of eliminate the "removable module" idea, but this current part is not bendable, to my knowledge.

Another concern: You may want to look into making the front/back/belly pan part into three parts, you should check your bending capabilities for tolerances and actual production of the part (some brakes may not be able to bend the belly pan that way).

EDIT: You can still have "no right or left hand versions" for the side plates if designed correctly.

Thanks for the feedback! I used chain over belt because the thickness of pulleys would make the modules very thick, limiting bellypan size. I'm attempting to get a c-c chain run with this, preventing the need for a tensioner (I know 846 has run this in the past).
Are you sure the module appears impossible to bend? I designed it such that our sponsor could do the two center bends and then the edges. If the current configuration is impossible, I'll work on changing it!
Would you like CAD files to further examine the drivetrain?