Kit of Parts Frame

Is your team going to use the KOP fram this year? If so why if not why not. Our team is split on the issue and im wondering what everyone else thinks.

Personaly i would rather have the satisfaction of building and designing the frame using the premade one just ruins alot of the fun.

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.

my 2.01 cents, hope it helps!

Doesn’t meet up to our specs, if we try and modify it, it probably would be more convenient if we just built an entirely new one.

We will probably use this one, with minimal customizations. Its better than what we’ve built before, so why not.

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.

Has anyone weighed the frame yet?

FIRST lists it, and the two transmissions at 13.4 lbs

ya positively sure? i believe we weighed in around 9lbs for just one tranny

Documentation on IFI web site says 13.4 pounds (INCLUDING fasteners).

… but that DOES NOT include the transmissions.

My bad, I figured they included the transmissions in there… that’s still pretty light though.

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.)

Again thanks for all your input

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.

That’s my 32 cents.

Matt

You are absolutely, 100% wrong.

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.

John

Our kitbot, with the chassis, motors, and trannies, weighed in at about 30 pounds.

Was this testing done with 120 pounds on the frame?

Also what is the material that the frame is made from?

Testing was done with 130 lbs on the frame.

Material is 5052 H34 Aluminum.
For more information refer to the documents found here::
http://www.ifirobotics.com/kitbot.shtml

That HAD to have been a lot of fun.

-Joel

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! :slight_smile:

I think these will spur much more competition than normal!