Anti-Slip Shelf/Drawer Liner Material???

[ChuckDickerson]

We are trying to decide what material to use for our ball conveyor. Yes I know, we are a bit behind. We are looking for feedback from anyone who has used the anti-slip shelf/drawer liner stuff in the past. It is light, seems pretty durable, and has good ball grip but how well does it hold up in competition? How exactly did you stitch the ends together? What type of thread or glue works best? Are the any pitfalls to look out for with this stuff? Yes, I did search CD and all I came up with is this, this, and this. We like it because it is cheap and readily available. You can get it at any local Home Depot, Lowe's, Wal-Mart, etc. Thanks!

[Rick TYler]

I haven't used it on a robot (yet...), but I have used the same material in my shop for years as a router pad. It is extremely strong, in that I cannot tear it by hand. The surface is soft, though, and abrades easily. I wouldn't try using an adhesive, since I would be concerned that the soft surface would come off with the adhesive (of course, I would defer to someone who had successfully tried this). If we use this as a conveyer for our ball sweeper, as we are considering this weekend, we will either fasten it with tiny wire ties or will sew it with nylon thread. I can see using a PVC adhesive to glue down the loose edge IN ADDITION to sewing it. For a conveyor for lightweight items like Poof balls, I think this material is the bee's knees: light, strong, and cheap. I LOVE light, strong, and cheap.

[Jared Russell]

Cheesecloth is always a crowd pleaser.

[DjAlamose]

In 2003, stack attack, we had a simple robot that could push stuff around but we had an arm (although never added to the robot during competition) that we used to stack tubs. The material we put on the grippers to help hold the tubs was this same material you’re talking about. It worked great and it held up very well. We constantly ripped the tubs from out of the grippers to see what would happen to the material and nothing ever happened even after about 200 tries. It’s a very resilient material.

We also have considered this same material although the exact material this year, but we chose was a slightly different kind. We choose a version of it that was made for use under rugs and carpets. This seamed to be more durable than the drawer kind. I’m not sure where our team got it from. But I do believe that we were going to use regular thread and needles to sew the material into strips. The thread was a strong nylon type of material that is thicker than plain old thread. But this should work.

Trust me you aren’t behind. We just got our shooter to shoot a ball last night at 11:30 except the power supply we used only went up to 5 amps, so the ball just dribbled out. We haven’t really began our ball collection system, but we are looking at various belting materials to use and this was a good choice on my list.

[Peter Matteson]

I haven't used that on a robot but below is the McMaster-Carr part number for what we use. It's a urethane belting. We have also used poly cord from small parts.

59725K14

You use a torch to melt the ends together to make a loop. It's light reletively cheap and extemely durable.

[greencactus3]

the shelf lining stuff you can wrap around and then ziptie around the whole roll in some places. and for occra this year we used pvc. and lotsa squeezage (13in air filled playground balls) worked fine. no problems ever.