Was wondering if anyone had any ideas on ways to reduce the weight of our arena or future arenas. We are pushing 2.5tonns and would like to go bigger and more rigid but I am running out of ideas as to how to do it.
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 11802
Location: Sydney, NSW
That's a lot of weight! Can you break down the weight by part to help with making suggestions? The only idea I have at the moment is to replace the steel roof girders with commercial aluminium ones. Could the floor be made of something thinner or lighter? _________________ Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion
Sun Feb 28, 2016 1:45 am
Valen Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 4436
Location: Sydney
have you looked at the weight of the arena vs the weight of the trailer, perhaps some savings could be made in the trailer itself?
Al wall tubes rather than steel?
If you want more rigidity then reducing the number of joins, so going to longer top and foot beams would help with both weight and rigidity.
MDF is heavy, LDF would save a bunch of weight for the floor (up to 50% lighter) at the possible expense of longevity, its a simple change to make though.
How thick is the steel in the bottom panels of the arena? _________________ Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets
Sun Feb 28, 2016 10:11 am
maddox
Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 786
Location: Belgium
More rigid means more power is absorbed in the form of real damage.
The DRG demo arena uses tensioned steel cables around a non bolted kickboard setup, and survives after 10 years of use.
The kickboards/sidewalls are a kind of sandwich. 450mm high OSB sheets spaced with 60*40mm pine. Inside pannel is covered with 1mm stainless sheet.
I have to admit, the stainless sheet is becoming very dented/sliced/pierced/gouged. Not at least because we ran Valkiri3 all out in there.
Sun Feb 28, 2016 3:23 pm
Nick Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 11802
Location: Sydney, NSW
How about swapping the roof polycarbonate for 3mm sheets? Nobody has ever launched a bot to the roof and 3mm will keep smaller parts in the arena.
Like Jake mentioned, replacing the heavy steel channels along the base of the walls with aluminium will save plenty of weight. _________________ Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion
Sun Feb 28, 2016 5:09 pm
maddox
Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 786
Location: Belgium
The DRG arena uses 5mm HDPE sheets.
Even hit by complete robots, it's still pristine.
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Can you break down the weight by part to help with making suggestions? The only idea I have at the moment is to replace the steel roof girders with commercial aluminium ones. Could the floor be made of something thinner or lighter?
