not sure yet. the way i see it is that it is not worthy enough for the amount of competitions we will be going to. i see the amount of holes and light weight of it getting destroyed by the amount of ramming and hitting, as i calculated before you have around 3-5 “shoving” competitions during one match multiply that by 10 then by 3.5, since if int he elimination rounds you have to play every match unlike previous years.
We’re thinking of using it for the competition. It is VERY well designed and the cross sections/channel provides a good amount of stiffness, along with the relatively light weight. Some additional strengthening might be in order - our current thought is to replace the fasteners with welding after we finalize the configuration.
It simply does not offer the customization as other frame options such as 1010 and 1020 from 80/20. It also does not provide the rigidity that we need.
So have any of you preformed any tests on the frame to prove to your team that its not sturdy enough ? i can tell by looking at its going to get smashed up and bent, but our head mentor insists its “amazing” What other materials have teams been using? and how long does it usually take you to build a rolling chasis. (it took us 4 weeks last year because of lack of supplies and hes holding that over us.)
I can tell by looking at its going to get smashed up and bent.
Some people might be jumping the gun on this framing. It really comes down to how you design your chassis. When you start making strong structural shapes with adequate support, (Just like you’d do with 80/20, box aluminum, pick your flavor) you’ll see this holds up.
I don’t have a piece of it in front of me, but it appears to be roughly an inch in size and U shaped. This means that you’re having excellent structural design in terms of increasing your moment of inertia. When you look at how little material is at the edges of slotted extrusion, I think you’ll find that this stuff will have a comparable (dare I even say better?) moment of inertia than your extrusion, and since they’re both made out of aluminum, I’d say this will be just as strong, if not stronger than you 1010 80/20.
I can tell you this frame went through EXTENSIVE destructive testing (vs. a concrete wall, among other things) and passed with flying colors.
When utilized correctly, it is more than adequate for the aggresive play of the FRC.
The only “weakness” is in torsional rigidity (cross corner twist). This can easily be eliminated through the design of an upper chassis (assuming you bother to mount a mechanism on it).
Don’t believe me?
Play with it. It speaks for itself.
Welding may be more complicated. As I read the specs for the frame material it is 5052 alloy of aluminum in the half hard state designated by the H34 designator. 5052 is weldable but tends to cracking on cooling. The aluminum once welded needs to be heat treated to relieve internal stresses induced by the weld and this is a complex process. If you have it welded by pros they will know what to do and should inform you of this.
You might look into some heavy duty aircraft style rivets as they can be quite strong, lighter than bolts and not subject to the complexity of welding this alloy.
I know there are probably teams out there that have welded frames in the past but it is usually 6061 alloy and not so subject to the cracking problem. Just a few thoughts and best wishes for the competition! LRU.
Wow, I want to comment anyone who spent atleast an hour making/designing these transmissions and frames.
If you get a chance to look at all the documentation on http://www.ifirobotics.com/kitbot.shtml
you will be suprised at the amount of work put into this project.
This will be great for rookies!
I think these will spur much more competition than normal!