Have you tested this with rubber bands on it? I have a feeling they might bend despite having 2 layers to them. Also, what is the benefit of having this over the vex ones? I personally have not had edges of a sprocket cause a problem with the rubber bands breaking. The sides also look thinner and potentially make the rubber bands break more.
Larger sizes makes sense, but I don’t see how the vex sprockets have less of a smooth edge than your design. If breaking rubber bands was really a concern on your robot, you could take a circular file and round the edges.
Circular edges are hard to machine using a standard 3 axis cnc. You could do the top edge, but you’d need to hand file the bottom edge, or run two different cnc routes, which might lead to concentricity errors.
the rubber bands apply a lot of force to the sprockets, I wouldn’t trust lexan to not bend under the force of a bunch of bands. even the vex sprockets bend a little without standoffs bracing them.
I don’t think you’d have any bending problems if the sprocket was designed properly. Polycarbonate has all the strength necessary to support the bands. I do agree with Ethan tho that this may be a waste of lexan.
Considering you don’t need very much lexan for the path going up the towers And also if you use a pooper design almost none. You should have plenty of lexan to do this. Unless you have some crazy way to use it all (since we don’t have to make long trays)
You might be able to attach a gear to one sheet to increase the strength of it. Also you might need this to be able to even spin the lexan piece due to it being a circle hole not a square. Also there s should help with the total amount of lexan used because it’s a precious resource.
