Acrylic Sheets

[3758]

Hi,

My team was wondering whether we could use Acrylite Acylic sheets on the robot. I found that Lexan and Acrylite were both thermoplastic sheets, but I was just posting here just to be sure.

[IndySam]

I would never use acrylic on my robots. It's impact resistance is just not up to the abuse. I don't even allow it in the lab so it isn't mistakenly used on the robot.


Stick with polycarbonate (lexan.)

[wilmo]

Seconded. Lexan can defiantly take much more abuse than the acrylic sheets. Lexan can take a full bore robot collision with minor damage while acrylic can be easily cracked if you even try to drill into it.

[Joe Ross]

Are you asking about FTC or FRC?

[Teched3]

Stick with Lexan as everyone has suggested. Just a note in forming it. If you "heat soak" it for a while at below thermoform temp, you force out trapped vapor, and eliminate bubbling in the sheet that occurs if it is heated too fast. Experiment and it's appearance will be maintained.

[Nick Lawrence]

I vote for polycarb, over acrylic. No matter where it's used.

-Nick

[lbarger]

FRC rules do not allow acrylic (Plexiglass (tm)). Stick with polycarbonate (Lexan (tm)) as it is impact resistant.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by lbarger

FRC rules do not allow acrylic (Plexiglass (tm)). Stick with polycarbonate (Lexan (tm)) as it is impact resistant.

What rule (from last year) forbids it?)

Also, he isn't in FRC, he is in FTC. Different rules.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by lbarger

FTC rules do not allow acrylic (Plexiglass (tm)).

Fixed.

For either program, acrylic should never be used, except for some really obscure exception or something. Always always use polycarbonate.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Always always use polycarbonate.

in FRC you could almost build your whole robot from polycarbonate...right?

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

For either program, acrylic should never be used, except for some really obscure exception or something. Always always use polycarbonate.

I can think of more than a few roles where acrylic would be suitably strong, such as concealed ball hoppers/dividers or decal backing. Just never use it for anything structural or might otherwise take any shock loads.

[Eugene Fang]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I can think of more than a few roles where acrylic would be suitably strong, such as concealed ball hoppers/dividers or decal backing. Just never use it for anything structural or might otherwise take any shock loads.

They're really close in price though, if I remember correctly, so wouldn't you go for polycarbonate just because it won't shatter on you?

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I can think of more than a few roles where acrylic would be suitably strong, such as concealed ball hoppers/dividers or decal backing. Just never use it for anything structural or might otherwise take any shock loads.

We have had decal backing shattered by another robot. Shards of plastic in your robot can be bad.

Originally Posted by Pikat

They're really close in price though, if I remember correctly, so wouldn't you go for polycarbonate just because it won't shatter on you?

Polycarb is generally twice as expensive as acrylic.

[J93Wagner]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

For either program, acrylic should never be used, except for some really obscure exception or something. Always always use polycarbonate.

Funny that you say that, especially since you built a crab drive structure out of the stuff.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by J93Wagner

Funny that you say that, especially since you built a crab drive structure out of the stuff.

That's just for prototyping a few plates that need to be milled out of poly that are harder to machine. The piece of acrylic is being used as a place holder.

Any "real" crab module will have zero acrylic in it, and I'm hoping my team's replacing the temporarily acrylic parts of the prototype rather than waiting for competition to build one that's strength testable...