Talk:Mechanical 2.16.2009

After the completion of the Rally on Monday 2/16 and our ensuing mechanical team discussion ending at 11:45 PM regarding the issue of the present robot conveyor design’s inability to maintain the conveyor belts on the pulleys under adverse ball loading conditions I offer the following potential design alterations in remedation of the problem.

In consideration of the present physical and time constraints we could emulate a similar conveyor belting implementation as the Honeoye falls team by making 1.5” diameter x 21.87” long cylinders out of PVC, creating round belt paths at 1.75 inch centers using the belt material that the Honeoye team has graciously offered to supply us at no charge. Additionally replace the solid ¾ Aluminum shaft with ½ inch 1/16 wall Aluminum tubing for the top 3 front shafts and the 2 rear shafts, reducing weight and assembly/disassembly difficulty since ½” matches the diameter of the present conveyor shaft bearings.

Further considering, when we have the belt spacing at 1.5-2 inches the ball path opening probably has to be between 8-8.5 inches not to create excessive deformity of the balls leading to damage of the ball playing piece. With the present frame structure, bearing mounts and range of adjustment, we would need to reduce the pulley diameters for the new top 3 front row belt pulleys and top 2 rear row pulleys to approximately 1.5 inches. That would allow for a ball path opening with the adjustment we have to be a maximum of approximately 8.75 inches.

That would leave the plucker and divider setup on the front and lower conveyors all the same.

One thing that we may also consider is to then remove the 2 outer outside plucker belts from the inside of the frame to outside the frame and add more pluckers to the front lower shaft. This will eliminate throwing that belt which was the last event that occurred during the final test last night. It would also elimate having pluckers interfere into the drive belts.

In support of possibly moving the lower shaft belts out ouside of the gathering ball path, It was proven accidently during the short test last night, that the front pluckers by themselves can gather a ball and push it very easily up the conveyor path with no belts attached in the proximity of the plucker gathering entrance as balls accidently entering that side and would then be thrown back out of the front of the robot hitting TomC as he was manually feeding balls into the gathering input:)

Are there any other thoughts in regard to the above?

Estimated required materials for the above redesign if decided to pursue by the team

Notes:

1. If PVC pipe is used for the rollers then item 2 would not be required - Might be a weight problem.
2. If we manufacture belts in some other fashion items 4 and 5 would not be required.

 

Item	Description	Manufacture	Part Number	Quantity	Cost
1	Multipurpose Aluminum (Alloy 6061) Tube 1/2" OD, .370" ID, .065" Wall Thickness, 6' Length	McMaster Carr	9056K661	2	$56
2	Multipurpose Aluminum (Alloy 6061) Tube 1-1/2" OD, 1.370" ID, .065" Wall Thickness, 6' Long	McMaster Carr	9056K791	2	$104
3	Black Nylon 6/6 Rod 1-1/2" Diameter x 2' Long (Black)	McMaster Carr	8541K27	2'	$18
4	Urethane Hollow Core Round Belting Yellow, 3/16" OD, 1-1/2" Minimum Pulley Diameter x 200' Long	McMaster Carr	6567K56	200'	$122
5	Aluminum Connector for 3/16" Outside Diameter Urethane Hollow Core Round Belting This product is sold in Packs of 25	McMaster Carr	6567k26	4	$20

Link to Larry's note in Mechanical 2.19.2009 regarding additional intel on teams using round belts

penfieldrobotics.com/wiki/index.php

Links to our Form with discussuion and pictures of Teams 148 and 1114 multi-belt implementations

http://penfieldrobotics.com/forum/index.php?topic=2508.msg8707#msg8707

Link to TomC's in house belting Inventory and Thoughts from 2.15.2009

http://penfieldrobotics.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mechanical_2.15.2009

Link to our Form's "Great Robots you don't want to miss"

http://penfieldrobotics.com/forum/index.php?topic=2507.msg8702#msg8702

Clear Videos of teams 100 and 148 in action.   Scroll up to the top of the link to see them. 

Other good toughts and stuff here regarding ball path desgin.

Two lane ball seperation on team 100's robot.

Both very effect close center belt systems.

Gracious offers and information from Honeyoe Falls Team 2228

From: Fleming, Paul J - SSD [n]
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 2:33 PM
To: 'Dave Vadas'
Subject: RE: Robotics

Dave,

Sorry for the delay on this, trying to catch up with work put off by the end of build season.

The key parts are the Roller End Bearings from MSC Industrial Supply:

Line
Item # Big Book®
Page # Qty.
Quoted Unit
Price Ext.
Price
1 00266668
3653
10 $7.41 $74.10
Description: 2" SCH80 1/2 ID ROLLER END BRG-UHMW

They were out of stock so the above quotation is for 10 pcs we had direct shipped from the factory. They now have stock of 20 pcs again, so you should be able to order in the normal fashion from MSC.

We combined this with hollow aluminum tubing with a 1.93 inch ID from McMaster Carr:

8978K895
(Same as 8978K26)
Rigid Aluminum Tubing 2" OD, 1.93" ID, .035" Wall Thickness, 6' Length
In stock at $23.04 Each

We meet next on Saturday from 9 to 4 and could make arrangements to give you some material if that works. Should you need it sooner we can see if we can get Darin Ledwith to cut a piece at school tomorrow and have it available for your pickup. If you have any questions at any time you are welcome to call my cell at 474-6958.

Regards,

Paul Fleming
Team 2228

________________________________________
From: Dave Vadas [n]
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 2:18 PM
To: Fleming, Paul J - SSD
Cc: michael.wolf@kodak.com; mtwolf1@aol.com; 'Thomas Kanzler'
Subject: Robotics

Hi Paul,

It was a pleasure to meet you Monday at the Rally. We are not sure yet, however we may want to take you up on your gracious offer for some of that belting material. Also, what was the name of the manufacturing that you purchased the conveyor roller end caps from?

If the team does decide to go that way, where and when would be some times that we might pick up some of the belting material?

Best Regards,

Dave Vadas
VP Engineering Services & Solutions
www.AssurX.com

mailto: dvadas@assurx.com
Phone: 408.778.1376 x713
Fax: 585.486.6520

2/21 Mechanical team meeting to discuss Robot conveyor redesign

In Attendance:
Larry, Kim, TomK, DaveV, AlexV, MikeW, AlexW, TomC, Tony
Time: 10 AM - 1:10 PM EST
Location: PHS L1 Back Room

All discussed the option for conveyor redesign. It seemed to end in a consensus to implement a rework for the top belt tiers for the front and back conveyors with the close center round belt design consisting of 9-10 belts on 1.75-2" centers leaving the first tier shafts, pulleys and pluckers as is. Design implementation will be similar to Honeoye falls implementation and utilize their gracious offer to use their conveyor belting material donated from Cross Brothers for in between each round belt.
Think MikeW was going to work out the details with for consensus and ordering of materials on Saturday for arrival on Tuesday in which part fabrication at PHS could begin.

As of this time not sure of status of materials procurement.