drop the pounds and go from metal muscle to shadow muscle

[mechanicalbrain]

Ive been considering this for some time. the shadow company (http://www.shadow.org.uk/products/airmuscles.shtml) makes an alternate pneumatics device called air muscle it is lighter, more flexible, and just cooler than your average tube. I'm wondering what your thoughts are?

also our team has a habit of getting leaks in our tubing, nothing serious but kind of annoying. are their any ideas for finding leaks and sealing them. we already use a sealing tape on the screw connectors.

[Bcahn836]

For the leaks in the pnuematics we simply brushed on soap and water around all connection points and any other areas we thought might have leaked. and depending on where the leak was we fixed it with tape by checking loose connection or replacing tubing. We never did get all the leaks out but we reduced the amount we lossed by alot. I think it was something like 10 psi every hour or so which isn't going to affect competition.

[spears312]

Looks pretty interesting, but it also looks a little difficult to mount securely. As for those leaks, I used to cut the tubs at an angle causing some leakage. Some of our fittings were kinda particular about the tube being cut at exactly 90 degrees. We sometimes found em' by bunching like six people around the robot listening for a slight hiss, not the most effective method I admit, but it worked... sometimes. Most of our problem leaks were actually found by double checking connections.

[Conor Ryan]

Yeah, Brad is right. The best way to find leaks is to use the Soap and look for the bubbles. There is no real "quick" way to find the leaks, at least that I'm aware of.

And yes the Air Muscle is very cool, i wish it was a kit part, there'd be some intresting uses for it.

[mechanicalbrain]

well actually i was wondering if we would be aloud to use it on our robots?

[sanddrag]

In 2005 that would not have been legal. You could only use the pneumatic cylinder in the kit and any that were on the Bimba FIRST order form. You could use any pneumatic fittings as long as they were rated for high enough but not any pneumatic actuators.

For leaks, we go by the rule if you can hear it leaking or you can see the gauge move then it needs to be fixed, but if you come back in a half an hour and the gauge has dropped some then you don't have to worry.

[Clark Gilbert]

Here are some other threads about similar items.

Where to get....

Rodless Cylinder

[evelyn1503]

i think that would be a problem to mount becouse of the way it is desind to move like that , but that is cool i think it would give a clange to the teams

[mechanicalbrain]

well to get a better idea of mounting go onto the site and look at the shadow hand and watch the movies i think you will find that it would not be too dificult.

[Andrew Blair]

That would be absolutely wonderful for building actuators. I'm nearly speechless. Not bad pricing either, except I'm not seeing a US order form. Is shadow British?

[Jeff K.]

The US order form is here

The only catch is that you have to either spend at least $72.39 in buying little parts, or buy their Shadow Starter Kit.

[Rickertsen2]

To bad the pneumatics rules are ridiculously and unnecessarily strict. Under last year's rules these would be illegal. This is something i have expressed frusteration over repeatedly. I think the custom cylinder order form is ridiculous. There is SOO much more to the world of pneumatic actuators than a few sizes of Bimba Original line DZ mount cylinders and PneuTurn rotary actuators. I have sitting in front of me a stack of pneumatics component catalogs about a foot and a half high. The bimba standard line catalog takes up only about a quarter inch. Of that quarter inch, we are able to use a VERY limited variation of 2 different parts. This frusterates me to no end.

If used properly, you won't have any problems with PTFE tape. If you prefer, there are several companies that make liquid threadsealers that work excellent and are generally easier than PTFE tape. If it is the push lock fittings you are having problems with, you are probably cutting the tubing at an angle.

[Rickertsen2]

Originally Posted by Clark Gilbert

Here are some other threads about similar items.

Where to get....

Rodless Cylinder

While that may not technically have a rod, it is not what is usually meant 99% of the time by the term rodless cylinder. Usually when one refers to a rodless cylinder they mean something roughly like this:
http://www.packexpo.com/companyfiles/36131/P1Z.jpg

[mechanicalbrain]

Its probably the tape, and i agree FIRST rules are unnecessarily strict in allot of aspects. I understand they are made either for safety or fairness in the game but still its pretty ridiculous. I think though that its hard for FIRST they have to balance covering everything with covering too much. Anyway we can still hope! They really are a thing of beauty!