Which plastic for armor

[elobire]

Just decided to continue the rebuild on my robot, only this time using plastic as armor on a box section frame, instead of metal.
So my question is what plastic is usually used for a featherweight, what thickness and where can i get it.
Thanks for the help

[mattsdragons]

Direct plastics are good

anything above 12mm hdpe is good, but go as thick as the weight can allow

can alos use polycarbonate but hdpe is better

[Eventorizon]

HDPE is very good at absorbing hits through deformation. NST may have bent the front of conker like blue-tac but all the energy was wasted in the hit. But obviously can only do it once in each spot.

Polycarb is much more expensive but it is much stronger and thougher. However it will shatter if you hit it hard enough, little hitter, NST or inertial XL are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

12-15mm HDPE I would say. 20mm if you want to be really sure

[elobire]

Thanks, i think il go for HDPE as i dont have that much money to spend on it and i doubt if it will see many battles anyway.

Going to weight it all up tommorow and see what kind of weight i have left.

[psycho_fling]

tbh unless you want to try and build a robot thats built to fight spinners you can use 8mm hdpe no problem i think for most events 15mm is a little excessive

[Liftoff]

I've got my hands on some stretched acrylic panels 9mm thick, think its quite strong and light ...need to give it a test but I'm quite confident it will perform well, its used for aircraft cabin windows and its lighter and stronger than polycarbonate - but I don't know who could sell it apart from someone who could get hold of scrap ac parts.

[tweedermeister]

from what i've been told and experienced you should NEVER use acryllic for armour as it shatters on impact

[Ellis]

Armour is as much in the mounting as the strength of the armour itself. Also depends on the type and the function of the armour. It may be thin and designed to flex deliberately, absorbing impacts, or it may be thick with the intention of simply keeping out the hits.

For Tormenta 2 we will be using a combination of 6mm and 10mm HDPE. Judging by our experience at the champs with v1, it should be fine. And, the beauty of it is, if it isn't, it won't cost an arm to buy more.

[maddox10]

The Hannibalito's use HDPE. Ranging from 5mm tot a massive 30mm in certain spots.

It does all we want. It's light (0.96kg dm³), resilient, virtualy unbreakable, easely worked and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Main disadvantage, the colors. Black and white are easy to find, the rest is on order per full sheet at least.

[elobire]

Thanks for the advice. I think il finish building the frame of the robot out of box section first and then see which bits i think will need the most protection.