ORNL helps with 3D printed robot

[ChrisFiggatt]

I just read an article stating that Oak Ridge National Laboratory helped eight FRC teams this season, one of which 3D printed most of their robot, anyone see or know which team this may be?

[SoccerTaco]

Yup. ORNL opened their Manufacturing Demonstration Facility to all local teams. One, 3824, made a complete Additive Manufacture/Carbon Fiber robot. Machine Design already picked up an article on it and has pictures.

http://machinedesign.com/content/lightweight-beams-0306

[ChrisFiggatt]

That's awesome! Machine design is where I saw the article and after I did a little searching, I saw where you previously posted your chassis pics. Do you have any pics of your finished robot?

[JeffersonMartin]

3824 definitely had a strong robot at Palmetto this year, though they had to scrap their climber. They also had a really nice 3d printed driver station.

[SoccerTaco]

That's awesome! Machine design is where I saw the article and after I did a little searching, I saw where you previously posted your chassis pics. Do you have any pics of your finished robot?

A finished robot - what's that?!?

I don't have a decent pic of the competition robot. I will try to get one of the practice bot. One nice thing about a mostly printed robot, it is easy to print more pieces for a second practice bot!

Those long arms that were in the pic from Machine Design were going to be climbing arms, but we were not able to get it to work in time. When we bagged the robot, it still had those arms, but the first thing we did when we got to Palmetto was to take them off and, sadly, scrap them. It may have been for the best, we converted to a run and gun / quick hang bot, and that has been successful for us.

We had a couple of brackets that were printed plastic that broke on us at Palmetto. That hurt us in eliminations. I know that one was not printed with ULTEM, which is the highest strength plastic that we print. The second one may not have been either, I don't remember, it is kind of a blur.

Fortunately, we have a good solution for those brackets. ORNL's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility has a number of different printers, including some that can print parts in titanium. So those few parts that were stressed in our first regional are being reprinted in titanium.

We do encounter some problems with our printed approach sometimes, like those broken brackets, but it is worth it. The kids are definitely inspired by the whole 3D printing thing. They can see their designs that they draw up in SolidWorks quickly turned into actual pieces. The quick turn around is also great for prototyping. This is our second year of a mostly printed robot, and the first year incorporating carbon fiber into the mix. More and more area teams are also taking advantage of this, so ORNL prints a lot of parts for FIRST!