Lid/Baseplate materials

[Eventorizon]

The problem with Polycarb is it will shatter if you hit it to hard, Hatchet suffered that fate during its first or second fight to its poly base plate. That said, I agree with the others, 5-6mm Poly for the top should be fine, but HDPE would be better. You could put in some rubber washers so its shock mounted in some way if you are worried.

On a more technical node, Titanium is used because not only is it much lighter and stronger than Aluminium and steel for the same weight its also much tougher, ie: it can absorb lots of energy in an impact. However, because once Titanium is bent you cant bend it back without risking it breaking (Anything made of grade 5 and up anyway) it needs to be much thicker to prevent that happening all together, else you risk ruining a very expensive panel.

Even more technical, Grade 5 Ti has about double the fracture toughness of 7075 Alu at 44-66Kic and around double the UTS at 1000MPa. At 4.43g/cc Ti 5 is basically double the strength and toughness of 7075 for only a ~50% increase in weight; 7075 is 2.81g/cc. This is where the 4 times stronger saying comes in, but its very rough.

PS: I will probably have got something in there wrong knowing my luck but you get the idea :P