Possible replacement for rubber band rollers

Nylon rope could be used on the rollers since it has 40% stretch (What I got from the internet) I don’t know if it loses elasticity when stretched but if it doesn’t I could see it being very effective for rollers. But there might also not be enough strain on rubber bands to lose elasticity for the rollers. Please correct me on anything and also if there are any other problems I should know of.

The issue is the rope has no grip, and only really stretches under high load. You’d be much better off with rubber bands or latex tubing

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oh well would’ve been cool to use

You could also possibly use the flappy things

Treads aren’t very good considering they take up more room (Balls can’t nest between sprockets when they have treads on them) also the rubber bands are faster to spin (treads have tons of friction) and also push the ball better (because it form fits to the ball). Treads are still great for intakes but rollers not to much.

while rubber bands do have a faster acceleration time it isn’t due to friction. you actually want as much friction as you can get between the ball and the rollers, and I’d argue rubber band rollers actually have more friction with the ball than flaps. the faster spin-up time is mostly due to weight of the roller, and the better top speeds of the rubber band rollers are because rubber band rollers are better at efficiently transferring power to the ball without stressing the motors.

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Not friction against the ball but on the axles and sprockets because of it being clunky

Actually on the top rollers you want just enough traction to be able to accelerate with as much torque as the setup can provide but low enough rolling resistance as possible to be the most efficient.

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(Unless of course you found some way to legally use a silica/silone rubber compound in your rollers, in which case you won’t have to worry about balancing rolling resistance and traction : ))