Custom Wheels

[DjParaNoize-]

Alrighty CD Community, does your team have/use custom wheels? If so; What is your process in designing/making them?

[Mike Marandola]

Here is a peek at what Team 316 will most likely be using next year.



They are cast urethane plastic.

[DjParaNoize-]

Do you have any issues with the material being worn out?

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by DjParaNoize-

Do you have any issues with the material being worn out?

The tread or the plastic?

The tread, yes. Plastic, no.

[Chowmaster4695]

Originally Posted by Mike Marandola

Here is a peek at what Team 316 will most likely be using next year.



They are cast urethane plastic.

How did you come up with the design for the wheel and do you have the numbers that would show how durable it is?

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by Chowmaster4695

How did you come up with the design for the wheel and do you have the numbers that would show how durable it is?

For the design, I just used the same outer diameter as the AM performance wheels and the bore will snuggly fit an AM hex hub. The spokes are just a simple pattern I drew up.

Not currently. I am trying to learn to use the stress analysis tool in Inventor. I made a set of urethane wheels that are considerably weaker due to air bubbles and they held up fine in a few off season events.

[avanboekel]

Originally Posted by Mike Marandola

For the design, I just used the same outer diameter as the AM performance wheels and the bore will snuggly fit an AM hex hub. The spokes are just a simple pattern I drew up.

Not currently. I am trying to learn to use the stress analysis tool in Inventor. I made a set of urethane wheels that are considerably weaker due to air bubbles and they held up fine in a few off season events.

Any details on how these were made? I assume you had to create some sort of mold, but how was this done?

[Jamie Kalb]

Originally Posted by avanboekel

Any details on how these were made? I assume you had to create some sort of mold, but how was this done?

Can't speak for 316, but I expect it's very similar to this.

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by Jamie Kalb

Can't speak for 316, but I expect it's very similar to this.

Yes basically, but we are using a two part mold. I will explain in a bit more detail when I get home.

[Dunngeon]

We built these wheels after we got tired of re-treading our Vexpro wheels.

The idea is that they split in half off the axel, so the axel doesn't need to be pulled out (We use a 2x1 Aluminum extrusion on both sides of the wheel axel) Then we can easily drill out the pop-rivets and replace the tread. As of now, we have had no issues with the tread bubbling at all.

The hex was broached after this picture was taken, we built 4 of them in house (3 Axis CNC), then a sponsor built the other 4 (5 Axis CNC).

And all the Conversational code to build these wheels was hand written, which is pretty cool!

[BBray_T1296]

Originally Posted by Dunngeon

We built these wheels after we got tired of re-treading our Vexpro wheels.

The idea is that they split in half off the axel, so the axel doesn't need to be pulled out (We use a 2x1 Aluminum extrusion on both sides of the wheel axel) Then we can easily drill out the pop-rivets and replace the tread. As of now, we have had no issues with the tread bubbling at all.

The hex was broached after this picture was taken, we built 4 of them in house (3 Axis CNC), then a sponsor built the other 4 (5 Axis CNC).

And all the Conversational code to build these wheels was hand written, which is pretty cool!
snip

Do you just tread each half and attach them with 2 seams in the tread? Pretty clever for those -hard to replace drivetrains

[asid61]

Originally Posted by Dunngeon

We built these wheels after we got tired of re-treading our Vexpro wheels.

The idea is that they split in half off the axel, so the axel doesn't need to be pulled out (We use a 2x1 Aluminum extrusion on both sides of the wheel axel) Then we can easily drill out the pop-rivets and replace the tread. As of now, we have had no issues with the tread bubbling at all.

The hex was broached after this picture was taken, we built 4 of them in house (3 Axis CNC), then a sponsor built the other 4 (5 Axis CNC).

And all the Conversational code to build these wheels was hand written, which is pretty cool!

Did you have any issues with the flat on the top/ bottom of wheels? How exactly do you replace the tread? Is this on a live axle or dead axle?

Wicked cool design BTW.

EDIT: didn't read whole post. Dead axle then.

[DjParaNoize-]

Has anyone tried using another material besides wedgetop or roughtop?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by DjParaNoize-

Has anyone tried using another material besides wedgetop or roughtop?

Blue Nitrile. That first picture in this thread shows some, though it's just about indistinguishable from the wheel. Lots of teams use that.

[DjParaNoize-]

Interesting, Most wheels tend to wear out from my view. Our team uses custom wheels with Ployurethane and they've got perfect grip and don't tend to wear easily.

Polyurethane is a great material; we did a Cinco de mayo parade with the robot last year on a hot day and walked on the streets and our wheels didn't wear at all. We'll Be doing the parade this year again ( Tomorrow )