pic: How It's Made: 148 & 217 Robots

[Paul Copioli]

IFI and MetalSolutions make parts for the ThunderChickens and have been since 2006. For that we are grateful. We send the part files to John and he gets them made. This year, with me actually at IFI, it was much easier to get the ThunderChicken parts made. All the parts have the Robowrangler sheet format as they have a special drawing method for bent parts.

217's part numbering starts with TC-2010 and 148's part numbering starts with RW-2010. This year both teams' parts were manufactured at the same time. As it has been since 2007, 217 and 148 have collaborated. Each year we have some parts that are identical and some that are not. It varies from year to year with some years having more identical parts than others.

As for this year ... well you will just have to wait and see!

As for the video, that was all John and Brandon Martus. Pretty sweet.

[s_forbes]

Thank you for the glimpse into your amazing manufacturing facilities!

That has to be an amazing and unique design experience for the students on your team. I would have loved the opportunity to see all of that when I was in high school. There are so many construction possibilities!