Roboteers, stand by…

Fibet’s anti-vibration products may not have prevented Crank-E from taking a mechanical mauling, but they did an impressive job of limiting damage.

There are some things you don’t see in your average episode of Robot Wars. Usually, while Dara O’Briain and Angela Scanlon are interviewing the teams and asking what went right/wrong, there’s a team out of shot sadly shovelling what’s left of their robot into a proverbial (or literal) bin bag.

But that wasn’t (quite) the case for the Cold Fusion Team. True, their robot Crank-E may have been bested by one of the hot favourites. And insult may have been added to injury when house robot Shunt decided to let rip with its pickaxe. But Crank-E escaped with relatively little internal damage, a fact that was all down to a design incorporating Fibet rubber bobbins.

 

The Cold Fusion Team were experienced robot builders and Robot Wars veterans. They knew all about the strict weight and size limitations imposed by the programme makers and that gave them a real challenge when constructing compliant external armour plating and the weapon sub-frame. A further challenge came from the fact that no team knows precisely what form or force of impact they’ll be facing – from buzz saws and angle grinders to picks and spikes, the potential arsenal is almost limitless.

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The team’s initial solution of fail-safe design shock absorbers didn’t fit with the size requirement, so the alternative was to use many bushes in parallel to protect the chassis, motor and electronics.

“Fibet brought experience and enthusiasm to the project and were a pleasure to work with,” said the Cold Fusion Team. “If the outcome was not entirely successful, it was due to the challenging weight and spatial requirements, and the harsh operating environment. Despite the robot taking a beating from one of the top competitor robots and a house robot, the rubber bobbins protected the internals and chassis from severe damage and allowed them to be reused.”

Do you have an engineering project that needs to take a novel approach to engine mounts, bobbins and buffers? Call Fibet now on 01282 878200 or email us at sales@fibet.co.uk

> Watch how Crank-E fared on Robot Wars

*Photo courtesy of Public Domain Pictures & Robot Wars Wiki