alternitive armour or different thickness

hi everyone

im not very clued up on titanium, on in the fact that its strong, so forgive me if these questions seem simple

one of my bots has 1.2-1.5mm titanium armour on the sides yet im not sure if thats too thin for spinner events since i want to get this into full combat and im unsure if that would survive a hit from a spinner without having a massive hole in the side.

would this be able to take the hit? what thickness could take the hits without deforming too much (i know Little Hitter has 2.2mm titanium) or what alternitives could i go for that are more spinner resistant but of a similar weight?

2mm grade 5 titanium :proud:

its finding the stuff thats the problem :)

Your spelling is appalling. Someone has to say it

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Originally Posted by ewan

Your spelling is appalling. Someone has to say it

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i know it is, always has been and probably always will be. first day back at school and being tired are not helping either :)

go get some from a titanium supplier. Search google for one.

As to thickness. The larger spinners will go through 1.5mm. I'd just stick with hardox and plastics. Far easier to work with and MUCH cheaper.

Wouldn't 3mm Hardox be a lot heavier than 3mm ti?

yes it would but it would also be around a fifth of the cost if not more.

I need to save weight in other areas then ;)

Hannibalito III uses a mix of 10, 5 and 8mm HDPE, with 2 reinforcing armor belts of 20mm

We took damage, even had 2 penetrations from PresseR, the Hydraulic powered Crusher from the Pulveriser Team but never had a failure due armor inefficiency.

On the other hand, it's bend, welded and bolted, mounted on shockdampeners and tested to the bone.

Disadvantages. It's black, and the bends ain't that pretty.

What other ways could I save weight? I could do smaller batteries and a pipe line buffer tank but most of the design needs protecting quite heavily and I don't think I could do full 3mm Hardox

I could make a new flipper blade since it's 2nm steel box tubing and a 5mm steel plate on that, but if i was to make that out of titanium, would 3mm be enough if I can afford it?

Drilling Holes in all the box section

how large is the 5mm plate? If it covers the whole flipper arm then cut it down so that it's just the tip that has the thicker material (for around an inch or so). Use plastic on the rest of the arm.

the plate covers the whole arm. the previous owner put it on since the arm bent after trying to self right on its side firing the flipper about 15 times

but drilling hols in the box tubing on the underside could work.

or... would it be worth grinding off all the box tubing and leave some at the base and tip of the arm for re-enforcment since the plate is 5mm steel?

swap the 5mm steel for 5mm aluminium. Will weigh a third of the weight, won't cost the earth and should be strong enough along with the box section to stop bending as long as it's a good grade. There are a number of feathers that I've seen that just use a length of thick box section for the flipper arm. If you really want to go down the titanium route then 3mm will be thick enough however finding it will be a pain. I hunted ebay for weeks before finding some that was suitable for my purpose.

i had better get the ginder out then as i want an ok bot to take to the 2012 champs as on other one has 4mm steel and 8mm hdpe :)

What is better armour, 15mm hdpe, 2.5mm hardox/steel, 5mm aluminium in full combat?

In feathers , only the better crushers can penetrate 15mm HDPE.

2,5mm Hardox doesn't exist, unless you mill 0.7mm off from the thinnest commercialy available sheet.

5mm ali, depening on grade goes from Ok to cardboard would have been better.

Sorry meant 3.2mm hardox

From personal experience, I would go for the 15mm HDPE. That's not to say that the metals won't be a good form of armour, but if your 3.2mm hardox gets hit and bent out of shape so much that it is impairing the operation of your robot, you're going to have a helluva time trying to bend it back into the right shape with the tools and facilities you have available at a typical full-combat event (i.e. a table and whatever tools you brought).

The HDPE, on the other hand, will mostly likely have a big gash in it from the impact, but will either flex and return to its original shape once the energy in the hit is dissipated, or be ripped off/shredded. In that instance, you can either heat up the HDPE to close up the gash/shredded bits, or cut a new piece of HDPE to replace the old bit. And since HDPE can be cut with a standard wood saw, you can manage that relatively easily at an event.

That's just my personal preference, but plastics - and HDPE in particular - have got a good reputation when it comes to full combat armour.

so you would recommend 15mm+ hdpe?

for armour hdpe is great, thicker the better.

Actually I would say that 15mm is unnecessary. Anything from 8mm-12mm would suffice in my opinion. Carcinus uses 12mm HDPE for armour and I'm confident that the important bits are suitably protected. 12mm upwards is a waste of weight and starts to make the robot too bulky looking (again, just my opinion). If you really want thicker HDPE than that, then layer it up in localised areas - perhaps at points where you reckon your robot could be more prone to receiving impacts - rather than spreading it all over your robot.

hdpe it is then :)

gary is this the titanium , i want some for the front of my flipper like a scoop, i think its maybe to pure or high grade and well expencive. just want to know what type so i can keep a look out on ebay etc. cheers.

http://www.advent-rm.com/catalogue/item ... ber=TI2284

or this

http://www.ti-shop.com/titanium-ti/shee ... sheet.html

bit cheaper !

Grade 5 is probably what you're after. How much are you looking for? I have a sheet of grade 2 2mm and a large sheet of 1.8mm grade 5 that i may be willing to cut a section off of.

cheers gary, this is what its needed for, the 1st pic is what i bent up at worthing, that was 3.2mm hardox, I want to put a plate similar in size to the 2nd pic. with the plate on i can slide under oppenents alot easier !
would 2mm titanium be ok ? i think ripper and behemoth have ti on the front and weird alice have now added a bit aswell, what do you think ?
cheers.

the size of the card on the top pic is 30cm x 11cm.

gary is ant bits you suitable for that ? or can you or someone else know where i can get some from ?

i had 4mm hardox on Merlin and it didnt last long. Its now got 5mm on, and that seems to be standing up ok. If not try some 6mm stainless, i had that for a while, lasted fairly well. Most places can bend the stainless as well rather than welding it, as that will effect the strength.

3mm Hardox seems like the most common armour on flippers nowadays unless it's pressure which used 1.6mm steel :)

4mm hardox is far better than 1/4 6mm stainless use to have that on the end of me flipper foud it useless LOL

I'm having to update grimreapers old 3mm steel shell but I don't really know what to go for. I need to keep the weight down yet make to strong enough for modern combat. Ti would make the cost go through the roof but I don't think 3mm steel would be up to the job now

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Originally Posted by mattsdragons

I'm having to update grimreapers old 3mm steel shell but I don't really know what to go for. I need to keep the weight down yet make to strong enough for modern combat. Ti would make the cost go through the roof but I don't think 3mm steel would be up to the job now

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I'd say keep it as is for now Matt, we dont wanna change it too much

i will for static but i dont think it would last long with modern bots

Hardox or 6-8mm aluminium

i would have thought that 8mm ali would weight a hell of a lot more?

aluminium is 1/3 the density of mild steel

ah yes, i was thinking thinkness, one of my many dim moments there :)