Material selection
Most engineering materials can be classified into one of three basic categories:
- Metals
- Ceramic
- Polymers
Their chemistries are different, their mechanical and physical properties are dissimilar, and these differences affect the manufacturing processes that can be used to produce products from them.
To manufacture the robot, we planned to use ABS (Acrylonititrile butadiene styrene) polymer by making use of the 3d printer for both the motor and the front wheel supports. The advantage of ABS is that this material combines the strength and rigidity of the acrylonitrile and styrene polymers with the toughness of the polybutadiennes rubber. The most important mechanical properties of ABS are impact resistance, toughness.
ABS is light weight and ability to be injection molded and extruded makes it useful in complex shaped manufacturing products.
Natural ABS 3D Printed on a Markerbot
Unfortunately, because of no working of laser cutter, it was not possible to use materials like wood or multiplexto manufacture the all external parts of the robot as initially planned. Cardboard beeing lightweight and good enough for our purposes, it was used as a replacement to allow us to produce the external parts. The wheels, the support of axes and the motor’s support were printed with ABS as intended.