Curving Polycarbonate

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Does anyone know the best way of curving or otherwise shaping polycarbonate?

In the past, i've used a pan of boiling water and placed HDPE into it, then shaping immediately after, and a high powered heat gun works as an alternate. Do these methods work for polycarb, and if they do - does the polycarb loose its famous strength after being subjected to the shaping?

If neither of the above work, i'd love to hear an alternative shaping method, if any exist.

cheers for reading

[team death]

Hi Adam
Heres a link to all you need to know about polycarbonate site
https://www.creativemechanisms.com/b...lycarbonate-pc

HDPE melts and becomes pliable at a much lower temperature than polycarbonate
I held my heat gun on some 6mm polycarb( 10cm x 70 cm)and it was still reluctant to bend.
Larger pieces -have them done at the manufacturer.

[Theo]

For thinner polycarb, you can use a hot air gun, however that can make it brittle. If it's thin enough, it's not even worth heating it on some cases

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Well. I was thinking of making a battle arena for antweights, by making a square out of polycarb, either one sheet with lots of curves, or seperate pieces for walls. Then a single sheet of curved at the edges polycarb to make a basic debris shielding roof to neatly fit over the walls, and allow even spinning antweights (which i youtubed, and they exist! Surprised you can get spinners with antweight sizes)

antweights wouldn't need any more than a few mm of polycarb to contain, even the low force spinners i suspect (I'd probably need to build or borrow one to double check and do safety tests here), so perhaps a heatgun approach would work. however that style of arena wouldn't upscale to even beetlweights and still be able to guarantee debris containment i suspect.

I'm trying to think of ways of containing things, for an upcoming tournament I'm going to try hosting. Antweights is the first challenge, then beetleweights and featherweights is where the awkwardness will begin I suspect!

[Roboteernat]

Remember there are rules for official Antweight AWS specified arenas, and some are that all sides are polycarbonate minimum 4mm and that includes the roof.
The link to rules including arena is below but netting will not be enough and a spinner could easily get through that.

http://www.robotwars101.org/ants/rules.htm

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Remember there are rules for official Antweight AWS specified arenas, and some are that all sides are polycarbonate minimum 4mm and that includes the roof.
Will find the link in Dec, but netting will not be enough

As stated above, it wouldnt be 'netting', it'd be a roof that simply lifts off the entire thing, but has enough weight that any debris through up from an antweight fight wouldn't be able to lift it again, with curved sides so even if it did, it'd be directed downwards - well away from the spectators / roboteers about a metre away and I was aiming for 5mm thickness, so i was on the spot there.
I wasn't able to find anything specific to beetleweight & antweight arenas on the FRAs official rules, and i wasn't intending on being part of any sort of series or ranks (which is what 'AWS' sounds like), or maybe I am alone in not being too bothered about the existance of ranks? I find they just cause often excess expectation from others, and pressure on the team holding the rank.

[Roboteernat]

Yeah AWS is the league which oversees battles with the Ants
I built an arena which is housed at the Swindon Makerspace, and it is a polycarbonate lid with sides that fits onto the wooden arena. It was made for AWS specs as the cost of the material, i decided it be a shame if it couldn’t be used for an AWS in the end.

Maybe a sketch to show your idea and suggestions can be made as to design.

With the curved polycarbonate, if it is big enough, then you can get the flex from a sheet, there is a curved battle box in the AWS leagues... will find a pic

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Well, this is part of a grander scheme I am hoping to work on, and attempting an end goal of launching an event, or 'circuit' that focuses on the North of England, and into Scotland. So i'm working on cost effective methods of building things, especially considering they'll need to be maintained and replaced frequently to ensure safety.

I've run into a little problem though, as the FRA documentation for arena specs seem to be somewhat old, I'm not sure if I'd trust them to manage the beasts of recent development in damage wreaking, specially from spinners. However that is a way off, I need to work on smaller things before going anywhere near heavyweight scale arenas. I'll be working with antweights, beetleweights and perhaps the less dangerous (aw, i know) featherweights to begin with.

A curved piece of polycarb for the main walls may look aesthetic, but won't be as flatpack as four seperate walls i suspect, although if I run out of room storing just antweight stuff, I don't have much hope long term, so I don't think it'll be too much of an issue.

The AWS stuff certainly seems sensible and logical, so I'll definitely work towards doing the antweight stuff towards their preference.

[Theo]

More Northern events? Yes please.

The insect classes are the way to start; however the arena classifications need to be updated

[Deathly Hallows]

A northern circuit would be excellent news!

[Danny B]

Agreed, we only get one or two events in the north a year. Anyone living in Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle or even Scotland would be delighted by the prospect of more events in their nick of the woods!

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So i've tried talking to manufacturers about getting polycarb curved before being shipped out, turns out that increases the price by several factors. Might have to scrap that idea altogether.

More Northern events? Yes please.

The insect classes are the way to start; however the arena classifications need to be updated

A northern circuit would be excellent news!

Agreed, we only get one or two events in the north a year. Anyone living in Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle or even Scotland would be delighted by the prospect of more events in their nick of the woods!

Cheers for your words. I'll be making a seperate thread at some point this week for that venture. I need to do a few things first, mostly think of a name and finalise a few things and figure out best place to post it on the forum.

[Roboteernat]

If it is for the arena, someone has made one using 2 sheets of 2mm ply carbonate that's easier to bend into a curve and bolt together as a curve

think this is the postm, but images are down, google has shown me this:

http://www.robotwars101.org/forum/vi...3e8fd&start=60

http://picus.org.uk/events/2015.html

[Deathly Hallows]

I had a little Google search and saw a few entries where people are talking about making replacement windshields for old race cars and bikes. They heat the material in an oven, lay it over a mould and clamp it down. Not sure how big your parts are but if they would fit in a standard or wide consumer oven, could be an option. You'd want a fan oven pre-heated to avoid hot spots causing problems.

[Maxamuslead]

I had a little Google search and saw a few entries where people are talking about making replacement windshields for old race cars and bikes. They heat the material in an oven, lay it over a mould and clamp it down. Not sure how big your parts are but if they would fit in a standard or wide consumer oven, could be an option. You'd want a fan oven pre-heated to avoid hot spots causing problems.

I would not use a over your planning you cook food in as you don't no what chemicals could be released from heating