Best frame building material

[Not2B]

[quote=cdr1122334455]I wise engineer once told me two things
1. There is no Best material, there are Right Materials.
2. Use the right application for whatever your material is.
QUOTE]

Very good - and true. Each application is unique.

862 has used plate aluminum, 80/20, welded aluminum tube, and "L" channel in various years. "L" channel (of various sizes) has worked the best for OUR team on the frame. But that's because we don't weld (for many reasons, even though we have MIG, TIG, and Arc welding equipment), we have a tendency to over tighten without spacer blocks (crushing box channel), and we don't use/have CNC Mills or Waterjet cutting (otherwise plate would be nice).

For us, material selection is based mostly on fabrication technique. Look around, see what other teams with similar resources use, and try it out over the summer.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by superbeano2004

I was curious on what is the best material for building a frame for a robot. Last year, we used 1" aluminum tubing and it did well but it was difficult to weld and it was not as strong. I see other teams using extrusion tubing and I was also curious on why extrusion so good. Thanks for your help!

Sorry but it looks like I beat you by about 2 years in starting this thread http://chiefdelphi.com/forums/showth...ssis+materials That's okay, it was buried anyhow. Brandon, perhaps we should merge? Or not?

[techtiger1]

Originally Posted by superbeano2004

I was curious on what is the best material for building a frame for a robot. Last year, we used 1" aluminum tubing and it did well but it was difficult to weld and it was not as strong. I see other teams using extrusion tubing and I was also curious on why extrusion so good. Thanks for your help!

1251 (my team) used extruded aluminum becuase it is stronger then that alumnium tubing your team used, however is it much heavier. so a good word of advice if you want to be light don't use extruded use the alumnium tubing. Extruded is good if your goin for robustness. The decision all depends on your design. Hope that helped.

Drew,
1251 THE TECH TIGERS
TECHNOLOGY FOR THE 21st CENTURY

[RBrandy]

Originally Posted by Rickertsen2

Vould you please elaborate on this a little bit? first off is does FRP come shaped like a panel? Or rods? tubes? what? I'm a little confused. It sounds to me liek you are saying it is a panel and you put in in the T-slot of unistrut?

First, let me answer this. We got square tubes. I believe it comes in a whole array of shapes and sizes. We took the unistrut, machined it down to a size that would nest tightly, but not too tightly, in the FRP. Then, we taped the hole, and screwed it in at a 90 degree angle to the instruct.

This is not frame related in the aspect you are asking about. Team 93, in addition to using the fiber glass (FRP), we also used a large 1/4 in. plate for mounting things, instead of using more pieces of 80/20. We used it to mount gear boxes, our battery, our electronics box, our programming, air compressor, etc. To make this plate strong we had one of our engineers brothers laser cut, then bend out 'ribs', if you will, to make sure it would not flex in any critical part. This part helped the robot meet the weight requirement and still stay robust.

I'm sure myself or Sean Schuff could conjure up some pictures of this plate so you can understand what I'm rambling about.

[Rod]

This year we plan to use the engineering teacher's head, it has got to be the hardest material known to man.

[suneel112]

Like Cyberblue, we used extrusion in the past (except for the "pre-me" robots - Rowdy 1 [2000] and Rowdy 2 [2001]). This summer, though, we replaced the frame with a welded box (1 in by 1 in or so) and it worked perfectly. It was 2 lbs lighter and we had weight to put on a pump (essential to the arm). Even though we didn't do great at IRI (because our arm broke in two places during the practice match - took 2 hours to fix, and the whole energy left in a battery issue), the frame was definitely a plus, and welded frames are what separate the men from the boys.
An example: Teams 66 and 279, the awesome teams we allied with at nats. Though 279 did use some extrusion in their arm, both 66 and 279 had welded frames (as far as I could see). They had very few limitations, except when the opposing robot would knock it over by entangling with the arm.
There are many more examples of this. Good one: WildStang this year, Beatty 71, and Las Guerrillas (469).

[Cory]

Originally Posted by suneel112

welded frames are what separate the men from the boys.

You don't even want me to list all the teams that have had great success with non welded frames.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by suneel112

the frame was definitely a plus, and welded frames are what separate the men from the boys.

Umm. No. Fixing a welded frame after a breakage in the non-welded part at a regional where you really have no time for welding is what seperates them.

Welding = Bad.

I would rather take apart extrusion based frames and redo all the screws and fasteners than re-weld a part many times.

Anything that needs special tools and/or skills to maintain especially at a FIRST competition should be kept to a minimum, and welding is one of those special skills.

[Greg Needel]

i don;t know about you all but i bring my mig welder to all the regionals i go to ...infact i do

[Veselin Kolev]

A good frame material I've heard of is carbon fiber board. You know.. the stuff motherboards are made out of. I'm guessing that if you make a basic chassis out of steel angle irons, and bolt on sheets of carbon fiber, it'll take a lot more damage than if you have polycarb side panels.

A related question:

I've seen how they make some airplanes, they get a big mold and use a special machine to lay carbon fiber all over it, making a shell. I've also heard they use this method for race cars. Of course I doubt many FIRST teams have access to NASCAR shops, but does anyone know how carbon fiber laying works? It would be cool to see a molded carbon fiber frame some day.

[Ali Ahmed]

Team 598 used a carbon fiber shell with Kevlar for support. That is really smart because both materials are very strong and very light. We use 60601 T6 aluminum but thats only becuase we do a lot of welding onto the frame and its the best application we have found. Just the right strenght and its light enough.