pic: Surprise! Your crate was crushed by _____ .

[KenWittlief]

there are little devices you can buy that you put on the outside or inside of shipping containers

to see if it gets tipped, dropped.... and how much shock and vibration the container receives in transit

[Tomasz Bania]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

there are little devices you can buy that you put on the outside or inside of shipping containers

to see if it gets tipped, dropped.... and how much shock and vibration the container receives in transit

Name?
Price?
Store?

Tomasz Bania

[KenWittlief]

Ive seen them on shipping docks, I dont have any supplier names or costs.

The simple ones are stick-on things, almost like labels, that contain fine colored sand in a narrow clear enclosure. The top of the enclosure is sticky like tape.

so if your container gets tipped the sand ends up stuck in the tape on the top side, and you have a clear indication your shipment was up-ended.

Other similar devices are available that trigger at certain shock and vibration levels. The intent is you can put one on every container you ship (because they are cheap) and it will tell you if the crate has been mishandled. To keep the shipping company from replaceing the ones that were triggered you can put them inside your container.

Obviously if your crate is smashed then you dont need a little device to tell you its been mishandled.

There are more sophisticated electronic devices you can ship in a container that record the shock and vibration of the entire trip, so you can analyse a typical shipment and know what you need to design your shipping containers to withstand.

[Jay H 237]

One of the things you can use to tell if you're crate has been tipped is a Tip-N-Tell. They cost just over a dollar each but there's also a minimum quantity and that's where they'd get you, especially that you're a team shipping a few items not a full scale shipping department. There's many shipping suppliers out there but we mostly use U-Line where I work.

MSC also has some shipping supplies, probably a supplier your team has used for other needs before.

[Andrew Blair]

I'm surprised at the low level of handling of these crates. I realize robot's were smashed and thats terrible, but what about companies who ship stuff Fed-Ex all the time? We are looking at a big pool (1000+ teams shipping stuff 2-5 times apiece) of examples, but the odds are still not real pleasant for an average private user. Looking at the shipping industry at a whole, I would *think* that complaints would force freighters to be more careful. Look at the airline industry: People are very rarely improperly shipped. Airlines tend to get a lot of complaints if that happens.

So, why is this happening? I can think of a few possibilities:

1. Containers are shipped this badly usually. We just need to complain more.

2. Such large containers are not commonly shipped and as a result are not handled carefully.

3. Afflicted crates are not built well, and cannot hold up during normal shipping procedures.

4. Fed-Ex puts a "FIRST ROBOT" sticker on the sides of all the crates and instructs forklift operators to search and destroy.

I kinda like # 4...

[lukevanoort]

After seeing this, I'm tempted to put a hazardous material triangle on the side of our crate saying that it is highly explosive...

[santosh]

Wow. That is horrible. We haven't gotten ours back yet. I am quite scared

[SURVIVORfan44]

I can't believe how damaged the robot is. For my old team, the regionals and championship were just the beginning. The whole life of the robot begins after that when we would show it off to companies and in front of our whole school and everything. I can't imagine how your team is taking this.

[Booger]

That sucks man

[FreakyAntelope]

For anyone interested in building a lightweight yet strong crate, my team published a white paper this year which is a good, cheap, strong, and light crate. It's also easy to open quickly at competition. About 10 teams in the Boston area used this design, and all of them had no trouble with overage charges, or damage in transit.

The white paper is here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1781

If you are going to build a new crate, I highly suggest you at least look at this design. If you don't use it exactly, you might be able to take some of it's better features and incorperate it into your own crate.

Maybe that can help prevent some people mishaps in the upcoming season :-P

- Toby, Boston University Overclocked 246

[Cactus_Robotics]

Originally Posted by Booger

That sucks man

Well put.

But honestly if you think about it the freight workers don't care about one box they'll just tell you incidents like this happen all the time. is it right or OK no but it happens. For instance at the AZ regional i saw the "crew" transporting the crates, coming around corners, clipping the sides of the fully loaded crates without a care in the world. So basically what it comes down to is that there getting paid to bring the crates in and bring them back out w/o any regards to what is inside. It truly does suck for your team and I'm sorry.

[pilum40]

Originally Posted by Ellery

Yeah Crate design that is robust and light is a challenge. Our crates have been pretty robust for years but the budget reductions have brought us to a point were every once counts. We've been looking for some type of lightweight crate that can support another 600# crate stacked on top of it. Right now our robot crate is 277# empty so just adding the robot with the controllwe already makes us over the 400 # limit.

I'll have to think of something this summer.

Ellery

What do you pack your crate with to protect the bot or do you just stick the robot in the crate and hope it works when you get there? Do y'all use some type of restraining system or packing protective system? I'm a little antsy because of the electronics/CRio, etc. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[Collin Fultz]

Originally Posted by pilum40

What do you pack your crate with to protect the bot or do you just stick the robot in the crate and hope it works when you get there? Do y'all use some type of restraining system or packing protective system? I'm a little antsy because of the electronics/CRio, etc. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Wow...old thread. But, you probably found it by searching, so that's a plus.

We typically strap our robot down in various corners of the crate using ratcheting straps. We tend to try to get one on each corner of the robot with an eye-bolt.

Bottom line - make sure it's secure in the crate. You dont' want your robot rolling around in there.

Good luck!

[Ellery]

We typically mount the robot frame to a platform base (so the wheels do not touch the floor) to screw strapping to hold the robot to the platform and then woodscrew the platform to the base of the crate. Pending on the height of the robot and what is hanging out there you'll need to approporiately tie wrap or place filler to keep it from moving. We usually try to pack as many other parts in there to maximize the shipment of stuff on long travel regionals.

[sgreco]

As part of our weight for withholding parts, my team typically just takes off what might break, then we safely bring it ourselves to the competition.

(Major thread revival, but it is an interesting topic to discuss...I know I fear what might happen when we ship our robot).