Designing Anodized Parts

[Madison]

I'm curious how many teams that anodize their parts build their robot (or parts of it) first, then tear it down and send it off to be anodized.

I'd love to find the time and the resources to get our machines anodized, but usually I'll be hard pressed to take something apart once we've put it together and I'm a bit nervous about sending off parts that may not even fit together.

[Travis Covington]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

I'm curious how many teams that anodize their parts build their robot (or parts of it) first, then tear it down and send it off to be anodized.

I'd love to find the time and the resources to get our machines anodized, but usually I'll be hard pressed to take something apart once we've put it together and I'm a bit nervous about sending off parts that may not even fit together.

We never assemble anything before powdercoating or anodize. We check dimensions and slip fits, but do not do any final assembly at all. There simply isn't enough time, as you said.

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

I'd love to find the time and the resources to get our machines anodized, but usually I'll be hard pressed to take something apart once we've put it together and I'm a bit nervous about sending off parts that may not even fit together.

anodize everything if something doesn't fit make a new part and just polish it so it gets that lovely shine......chrome look goes with everything

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

I'm curious how many teams that anodize their parts build their robot (or parts of it) first, then tear it down and send it off to be anodized.

I'd love to find the time and the resources to get our machines anodized, but usually I'll be hard pressed to take something apart once we've put it together and I'm a bit nervous about sending off parts that may not even fit together.

Anodize/powder first, assemble 2nd...check your general dimensions, but there isn't time to go ahead and assemble and breakdown and assemble again.

[John Gutmann]

I love annodizing too, but doing it on such a time constraint is hard.

-John

[Kirk]

If you talk to an anodizing company they can usually control the buildup +/- .0004. You just have the bearing bores machined oversize by the amount that the anodize will build up and you are good to go. The buildup (growth) on a standard hard anodize is usually in the range of .002 - .005.

This is what we had to do with the teeth on the gears. When I hobbed the gears we cut them .002 undersized to allow for anodize buildup. In the end everything worked perfectly.

[Jeffrafa]

As far as timing, our team built up our practice robot, then got everything anodized on the final one before any assembly. Obviously this isn't always a viable option, as you must be building a 2nd to go this route, but it worked out well for us.

The anodizing company we used turned some parts around same day for us, since we were pushed - although a couple parts were next day. All was donated, which was nice, so additional expense due to turnaround time wasn't a problem.

I can't say much in the way of tolerance, our wheel bearing blocks didn't make it to anodizing. The tapered bearing blocks in our transmissions did get anodized, but the difference was negligible and didn't pose any problems.

- Jeff

I'm looking at anodizing a bunch of parts next year, and time really isn't an issue with the guy we're going with. Will the bearing holes have any issues if we're going to press fit them anyway?

[DonRotolo]

If you really want/need to know just how much thicknedd a particular anodizing process adds to your parts, Travis Covington had the absolute best solution: Just ask the guys who are going to do it. THEY KNOW.

Alternative: Make a test coupon (a sample with some holes, slots, flats and stuff) and have it anodized, and measure ofr yourself what the difference is.

In the real world, if your vendor doesn't know his process, you find another vendor. If that's impossible, then you run some tests and measure.

Don