pic: 3D Printed Parts Contest

[teslalab2]

Does it have to be team? Can I post something I made on my personal printer? I would imagine not though.

[BBray_T1296]

Originally Posted by teslalab2

Does it have to be team? Can I post something I made on my personal printer? I would imagine not though.

I feel like this challenge is supposed to be 3d printed parts specifically for an FRC team, not just the coolest part made on a 3d printer*.






*It'd have to be pretty good to beat mine

[Botwoon]

Spot the printed parts

[Briansmithtown]

On our 2014 robot, we had these cylinder cartridges that were used to hold down our throwing arm(energy stick). They worked ok, but we printed out more just to be safe.

[Chris is me]

125 is gonna win this one.

2791 has a few cool 3D printed parts too - gearbox covers, a ball cradle, linkages, etc.

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

125 is gonna win this one.

2791 has a few cool 3D printed parts too - gearbox covers, a ball cradle, linkages, etc.

You say that and yet you haven't seen 3824's robot. For those of you that don't know they use an almost entirely 3D printed robot. I don't think they 3D printed everything this year, but I could hazard a guess it's still a lot.

[MailmanDelivers]

Just to answer a few questions:

You can submit parts for any FRC Game, preferably this year or last years game - sorry, no personal parts!

To further explain one rule, "Teams may only submit once", it's to prevent duplicate entries of the same exact part. Teams may enter multiple parts.


Don't forget to send an email to Contest3D@Ligerbots.com to submit your part or part(s).

[lovelj]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

You say that and yet you haven't seen 3824's robot. For those of you that don't know they use an almost entirely 3D printed robot. I don't think they 3D printed everything this year, but I could hazard a guess it's still a lot.

Thanks for the honorable mention. After our printed frame cracked week 1 we knew we had to step away, regrettably, from all printed robots. We had a few printed parts for our pickup mechanism but they didn't survive Palmetto. We still have no metal though... All pultruded fiberglass. Fell in love with the stuff. Light and durable.

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by lovelj

Thanks for the honorable mention. After our printed frame cracked week 1 we knew we had to step away, regrettably, from all printed robots. We had a few printed parts for our pickup mechanism but they didn't survive Palmetto. We still have no metal though... All pultruded fiberglass. Fell in love with the stuff. Light and durable.

I might have to ask you sometime about how you did things with the fiberglass. We tried that last year on our Orlando revision of our robot and we didn't have the most fun with it.

[lovelj]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

I might have to ask you sometime about how you did things with the fiberglass. We tried that last year on our Orlando revision of our robot and we didn't have the most fun with it.

No problem. We used pultruded fiber from Strongwell

http://www.strongwell.com

It's what fiberglass ladders are made of. You can get all sorts of shapes, tubes, sheets, plates... You can drill and cut it like aluminum. It has a high, but directional, specific strength. You can see some of the parts, as well as some printed parts, on our reveal video.

http://youtu.be/nC5Jw_LQt9I

If anyone wants to see our printed bots, they are in this years Behind The Design book.

[trumpthero786]

Originally Posted by Botwoon

Spot the printed parts

Hmmm, those bevel gears on the intake look printed, along with the guides for the polycord. The wheel hubs look like it as well.

[Kellen Hill]

I'm a big fan of our encoder mounts this year. The clip just rides between our drive motors and supports our encoders while being retained to the shaft using these clamping couplings from Automation Direct.

[Mike Schreiber]

Originally Posted by trumpthero786

Hmmm, those bevel gears on the intake look printed, along with the guides for the polycord. The wheel hubs look like it as well.

Has anyone tried 3D printed bevel gears for a low load high speed application like an intake? We talked about this but we were too nervous about it. I don't know enough about the plastic properties to know if they'd be okay. I know you can buy nylon bevel gears, but I don't know how they hold up.

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by Mike Schreiber

Has anyone tried 3D printed bevel gears for a low load high speed application like an intake? We talked about this but we were too nervous about it. I don't know enough about the plastic properties to know if they'd be okay. I know you can buy nylon bevel gears, but I don't know how they hold up.

Short answer:
Yes. It works, but it isn't the BEST option.

Long answer:
This year, I prototyped a vertical extension of our horizontal roller intake after bag and tag. I made some 1/2" hex bore spiral bevel gears that transmitted power at a 1:1 ratio at a 90° angle. While the system did work, we ended up not using it due to size, placement, and vulnerability. To get the strength capabilites you need to use for just about anything, even a low torque intake, the gear tooth has to be pretty large. Also, I had to design the gears myself, just because there aren't many resources online that I could find for printed gears. Downloading the files for a gear won't give you the correct tolerances for printing. Had I already not spent some time last semester on how to design spiral bevel gears, I would have had no idea how to do it. Also, I had access to parts printed out of Ultem plastic, which is much stronger than ABS or PLA. In the end, it worked, but not as well as I would have hoped considering the time I put in it.
I would just use the bevel gear from WCP if you can, but I would also love to see somebody refine some designs for printed bevel gears.

[MailmanDelivers]

If anyone wants to apply their 3D Printed Parts the deadline is this Thursday, April 21st. Remember to also email a picture, render, or the .stp file to Contest3D@ligerbots.com.

We've had great submissions so far, and can't wait to see more!