pic: GUS Team 228's 6WD Sheet Metal Prototype Chassis

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Do you think the gearbox will be stiff enough?

There shouldn't be any problems.

Every time another flange or bend is added to the part, the cold rolling operation strain hardens the material. Both of sides (which would replace standoffs) have a flange on the top, and the face where the CIM motors are mounted has a flange along the bottom. I'd love to do some advanced FEA on the part, but I'm still learning Cosmos.

So until then, I mostly rely on past experience. Like this bracket I modeled for our 2007 robot, which would have been near impossible to make out of anything except sheet metal.



And mounted on the robot:





... which took all kinds of abuse the entire season and never had any structural problems.