Interesting that you have a lid, does it also have a belly pan?
A box like that could be very strong.
Mind sharing your thoughts on this?
I posted this sketch as a sample of a sheet metal drive base in another thread.
The whole drive base is processed on a laser cutter. All the brackets will be nested along with the drive base. The laser processing time is a few minutes per robot. The tolerance of the parts will be very high since all the holes are cut at the same time. The laser cutter can process a 60" x 144" sheet so we can process a extra drive base very quickly. The drive base can be formed using only one brake die setup. Once the seams are welded and the manipulator is attached the drive base will be stiff enough for competition. The belly pan sits on top so we can mount electronics via the bottom of the base and have easy access to the components.
The processing time to cut tube , mill holes, fixture to weld, weld and grind is much more than building the drive base and associated parts from a lasered sheet metal nest. Processing time on the laser can be over 300"/minute depending on type of cut and type of material.
do you plan on creating designated spots for electronics on the pan, and how to you plan to manage electronics, pneumatics, and wiring/hoses
What are you going to use to protect the electronics on the bottom? How are you going to pass the power and control wires from the electronics panel on the bottom to the battery, breaker and any motors, actuators and sensors that are up above your chassis? How are you going to protect the insulation on those wires passing through the sheetmetal?
It is your total build time to having a reliably functioning robot that scores reliably and consistently that really matters.
Have you taken into account how accurately the folds can be made and how much distortion occurs when welding when determining your final accuracy? How accurate does it need to be?
What thickness of sheet metal will you use for the pan? 1/16 or 1/8 in?
Yes. the drawing is an example of how to make a sheet metal drive base from a single piece of sheet metal and how to incorporate the WCD bearing blocks into a hybrid WC drive
The finished product will have all the mounting holes for whatever we use.
.090 " 5052 H32 is the preferred material
Will you mount compressors upside down, along with the rio?
no
I love the idea of doing a one sheet chassis as a concept, but feel it falls short in reality. Tolerances on all the bends to get your miters right and to align your bearing blocks looks tough.
More importantly, I’m not convinced a weld bead on a miter on the bottom is enough to effectively “close out” this box for the torsional rigidity needed in a chassis. I think this sheet would matchbox on a corner hit. You could do a detachable bottom to protect the electronics and tie everything together but then I don’t think you have many advantages over other designs.
Open C channel sections like in the ‘drive rails’ don’t have the torsional stiffness that closed sections do. This is why most of the sheet metal chassis you see have 2 parallel C sections tied together acting as a rail with end plates and often a cross member in the middle. The versablocks may act as a way to close that out but there are large gaps between them.
The big flat plate on top is locally not very stiff except around the bends. It’s possible to have issues mounting super structure depending what you plan above your chassis and where it needs to live. Additional pieces are required for bumpers that further detract from the advantages.
Love the creativity, I’m sure this thing would drive and look really cool, but I’d be shocked if it survived the season without a bit more structure.
Snipped, emphasis added by me
Sounds to me like more structure is exactly what’s planned. Furthermore, I’m sure care can be taken with the bends. Seeing as OP is a sponsor in the same area I work, I can say with confidence there’s several shops in the area with the required precision to make this happen.