Colson Performa Safety

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by jnicho15

Have any teams that use Colson Performas on their shooter mechanism experienced any issues with delamination or other high-speed failures? Our team is considering using the 4x2 hex bore wheels on our shooter at nearly 10,000rpm and are worried about safety issues.

Do not take these speeds lightly, we are running some drive rollers from McMaster at about 5000 rpm on our robot. We had some issues with the rubber delaminating on part of the hub and allowing it to expand one part of the wheel too much. This caused the wheel to unbalance to far and rub against things tearing parts of the wheel off slowly. We fixed this problem by banding the middles with safety wire and burying the twisted end into the rubber of the wheel.

The following video is an attempted destruction test of said banding method, the wheel in the video plateaus at 7,750 rpm and the surface of the wheel is seeing nearly 3,000 G's of outward force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOYEp6tjQDg

[Tim Lehmann4967]

We are using two Colson Performa 4x2 wheels with press fit hex hubs on our shooter. They are driven by mini-cims and Versa Pro pulleys/belts and mounted with thunderhex bearings and 1/2in hex shaft. Max speed is 6,000 RPM and we haven't had any issues whatsoever.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by trumpthero786

I really like Colson wheels. How do you think 6 or 8 inch Colsons would hold up in Stronghold? I really wanted them early season, in the design period. Unfortunately VEX only sells up to 4 inchers which are good, but for obvious reasons aren't for this game. I wanted to get these ones or these but it ended up being easier to get traction wheels.

6" Colsons work great this year. 228 is running a 10WD on all Colsons with no problems. Colsons are particularly good when driving over a variety of surfaces, as they have good general traction on most any surface. That makes them a great fit for this game, really.

The only thing is you need to press fit hubs into them - Vex sells live and dead axle hubs (though check the OD on them before you press them in, they're sometimes too small / big). It's also not hard to make your own aluminum or delrin hubs if you have a lathe.

[C.Lesco]

Pfft only 12 000? We have a PG71 running 1:1 via vex sprockets. 70rpm baby!!!! Had to remove since safety was worried the wheels would fly apart pulling the maximum fasts/hour

[Michael Blake]

Dual everything - 775pro --> 4:1 VersaPlanetary --> 1:1 VEX PRO gears transfer --> VEX PRO hex shaft --> 5"x2" Colson wheel/VEX PRO live hub --> 2.5" compression.

NOT a single problem.

But, I probably just jinxed us...

--Michael Blake