Antweight Armour

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Rocketeer13
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Antweight Armour

Post by Rocketeer13 »

So my Antweight is beginning to progress now, and I'm beginning to get some parts. Just wanted a few pointers about body construction though: What are the advantages/disadvantages of the different materials, and what would it be good to use as a beginner?

Plastic would probably suit my needs, and I've seen
HDPE, polycarbonate/lexan, UHMW, and Plexiglass recommended.
I liked the look of HDPE, especially against spinners, but I heard it's tricky to stick together?

Just for a bit of context, I'm making a front hinge flipper, sort of an amalgamation of Firestorm and Eruption. I don't have any pictures of the current design, but I can certainly upload some if that will help!

Thanks very much!
Crossblow [BW] - Four Bar Lifter (Active)
Serf's Up [AW] - Lifter/Rambot (Under Construction)
Kosmos [AW] - Front Hinged Flipper (Retired)

Team Page:
https://www.facebook.com/MotteAndBaileyRobotics/
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Shakey
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Re: Antweight Armour

Post by Shakey »

Plastic is my preferred armour of choice as it provides a bit of flex on spinner hits which allows your robot to absorb damage. Of the plastics Polycarbonate is the most popular (and my preferred) with HDPE not far behind. Mounting the armour with bolts or self tapping screws is probably the most robust method of keeping it on the robot and also allows the armour to provide strength to the chassis.

HDPE - It works and is fairly popular but I always feel it's a bit too soft really. As you mentioned HDPE does indeed hate sticking to anything.

Polycarbonate/lexan - My prefferred armour, it's very tough with just the right amount of flex to take the edge of a spinner hit but still not so flexible as to fail to spread the energy around the robot. I generally mount it over a wide area with screws so on hits the energy is distributed throughout the robots whole chassis rather than one area getting a high concentration, this helps your robot survive spinners.

UHMW/UHWMPE - This is essentially slightly stiffer slightly heavier HDPE. A fairly good choice, I feel somewhere between HDPE and Polycarb in terms of flex.

Plexiglass - Otherwise known as acrylic it is too brittle for use in antweights.
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
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Rocketeer13
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Re: Antweight Armour

Post by Rocketeer13 »

Shakey wrote:Of the plastics Polycarbonate is the most popular (and my preferred) with HDPE not far behind. Mounting the armour with bolts or self tapping screws is probably the most robust method of keeping it on the robot and also allows the armour to provide strength to the chassis.
Thank you! That definitely helps get me on the right track. I'll go with Polycarbonate then.
I guess, from what I've read, that 2mm is a good thickness, and I was hoping to use this for the baseplate and flipper as well. However, I was planning to glue the body together, and hadn't even considered bolts or screws except to keep the top panel on. How exactly would you attach it all together?

Thanks again for your help! :)
Crossblow [BW] - Four Bar Lifter (Active)
Serf's Up [AW] - Lifter/Rambot (Under Construction)
Kosmos [AW] - Front Hinged Flipper (Retired)

Team Page:
https://www.facebook.com/MotteAndBaileyRobotics/
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Shakey
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Re: Antweight Armour

Post by Shakey »

Rocketeer13 wrote:However, I was planning to glue the body together, and hadn't even considered bolts or screws except to keep the top panel on. How exactly would you attach it all together?
Well... Bolts and/or screws. :P

Making little tabs so the plates overlap or using chunks of HDPE to screw into work. Polycarbonate doesn't like glue that much except quite tacky hot glue, but that's not the best solution of a tough robot. Or fold the chassis out of one piece. I 3d print frames that all the armour screws too but I'm not sure that's a helpful suggestion if you don't have access to 3d printing.
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
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Rocketeer13
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Re: Antweight Armour

Post by Rocketeer13 »

Shakey wrote:Making little tabs so the plates overlap or using chunks of HDPE to screw into work. Polycarbonate doesn't like glue that much except quite tacky hot glue, but that's not the best solution of a tough robot. Or fold the chassis out of one piece. I 3d print frames that all the armour screws too but I'm not sure that's a helpful suggestion if you don't have access to 3d printing.
The method I had in my head was roughly similar to the video below, but Polycarb seems like pretty affordable stuff, so I can probably just try out a few different techniques to attach everything and see what works best! Sadly I don't have access to 3D printing, as that would be a great help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrBU_wejbxc

In case you were wondering, this is my current design, actually designed with some of your advice on the Robot Wars Facebook group in mind. So thank you again! You've been very helpful!
Kosmos CAD.jpg
Kosmos CAD.jpg (41.77 KiB) Viewed 4861 times
Crossblow [BW] - Four Bar Lifter (Active)
Serf's Up [AW] - Lifter/Rambot (Under Construction)
Kosmos [AW] - Front Hinged Flipper (Retired)

Team Page:
https://www.facebook.com/MotteAndBaileyRobotics/
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