|
 Accurate
Heat Treating processed all
of the pointy tool steel weapon parts on The
Disk O' Inferno: Disk, Disk Top Teeth, Disk Shaft, Tail
Shaft, & Tail Teeth. So many tool steel parts. So much heat
treating. Such great results. Accurate Steel Treating is the largest
tool steel heat treating company west of the Mississippi. Accurate
Steel Treating is leading the way with one of the most advanced
heat-treating facilities in the industry. They have combined their
decades of hands-on knowledge with the latest state-of-the-art
equipment to provide their customers with a level of quality and
service second to none. This powerful combination has earned Accurate
Steel Treating a nationwide customer-base, in addition to their
local market in Southern California. They offer unmatched expertise
in normal and high-pressure vacuum heat-treating, precision carburizing,
& gas & ion nitriding,all in a production environment
designed for quick turn-around and reliable results, every time.
Axxis
Corporation milled some big big big parts of The
Disk O' Inferno. Because the Infernolab had access to
advanced machining capabilities, the design strategy for The Disk
O' Inferno was to build the bot from very few parts; most of the
robot was made up of only 4 parts...4 very large & complex
parts. This saved on assembly/disassembly time, lowered fastener
count, increased strength & stiffness...and is also very very
very cool. Axxis Corp used large-bed mills to machine the disk
(27" x 23") & tail frame (22" x 13").
Axxis Corp. has an impressive array of modern CNC machines, many
of which can accommodate extraordinary parts. Axxis Corp. came
through with some gorgeous machined parts, cut some challenging
geometry & design features, & delivered some effective
parts that made many of the other teams jealous. Axxis Corp. is
a state-of-the-art CNC machine shop in Southern California committed
to creating cost-effective product design and manufacturing of
the highest quality.
Bralco
Metals: where the Infernolab got most of its metal to
machine parts for The Disk
O' Inferno. This bot was built from a lot of aluminum:
the Chassis Frame, the Tail Frame, the Chassis Foorpan, &
about a dozen smaller parts. The billets for those first two parts
alone, plus a spare of each, added up to hundreds of pounds of
6061. Receipt of these hunds of material was part of the exciting
day when the big truck dropped off the big pallet for the forklift
to pile up our metal in the shop. As they say, there's a robot
hiding inside those billets--just cut away everything that's doesn't
look like a robot. Bralco Metals is a diversified metals processor
& distributor located in La Mirada, CA. Bralco Metals is a
division of Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co, the largest metals
service center company in the United States. Bralco Metals is
a step ahead with their state-of-the-art 140,000 sq. ft., AS9100-
& AS9120- certified facility with an array of diverse products,
processing, & service to meet your ever-changing needs. With
over five decades of experience, Bralco Metals provides the industry
with immediate delivery from a vast inventory of aluminum, brass,
copper, bronze, stainless steel, & cold-finished steel rod
& bar. Located in the Los Angeles suburb of La Mirada, CA,
with branches in Kent, WA; Wichita, KS; Garland, TX; Phoenix,
AZ; & Albuquerque, NM. Bralco Metals offers complete pre-production
precision processing services: leveling, blanking, cutting-to-length,
slitting, sawing, shearing, grinding, machining, & thermal
flattening. Let Bralco, with their sophisticated computer system
and multi-branch locations, plan your just-in-time inventory to
give you exactly the material you need, when you need it, while
lowering your total cost of ownership.
The
Cardmaster assisted the Infernolab with marketing The
Disk O' Inferno; marketing is one of the many other aspects
that a successful team must master, apart from building the actual
bot. Our fans needed audience signs & banners! Our toolboxes
& equipment cases needed skins! Our car bumpers needed bumper
stickers! The Cardmaster provided us with high-quality full-color
prints on a variety of different materials. The Cardmaster not
only printed but also designed our audience banners--the fans
loved them almost as much as we loved seeing our signs in the
stands when we were in the BattleBox, & they caught the eye
of the TV cameras & producers, landing our most energetic
of fans on prime-time network TV! Fast, responsive, creative,
& economical! The Cardmaster provides the highest level of
quality service to its clients. Their design team can provide
you with custom designs that cater to your business needs. They
design simple artwork & also create multiple marketing ideas.
They use state-of-the art printing & die-cutting equipment.
They take your concept & elevate it to the next level. All
design fees are included in their prices.
Great
Western Grinding machined 2 critical parts for The
Disk O' Inferno, the Disk Shaft & Tail Shaft, each
of which sported many precision features & smooth surface
finishes. A few stats on the Disk Shaft: held an assembly weighing
66 lb & spinng at 3,000 RPM. The Tail shaft supported a 33
pound assembly, & it featured 7 retaining ring grooves, 2
big lightening thru-slots, & 3 keyway pockets. Since 1956,
Great Western Grinding has been known for the highest quality
& most exacting standards. Their services include close tolerance
ID and OD grinding to within +/-0001", tooling, precision
CNC machining, prototyping, & special equipment manufacturing
in-house. For craftsmanship, personal attention to customer service,
& on-time delivery, please contact Great Western Grinding.
Griggs
Steel Company worked with Hudson to provide the M4 tool
steel for the Tail Tips & Disk Top Teeth of The
Disk O' Inferno. Griggs has been providing high speed
tool steel to the cutting tool, & forming industries for over
65 years. Their customers range from the largest punch, drill,
broach, form tool & tap manufacturers in the world to thousands
of smaller users. No one stocks more grades of flat and round
bars then Griggs Steel Company, or they can cut any size that
you require from sheet, block, or plate.
Hudson
Tool Steel is where the Infernolab got all that high-strength,
hard material for weapons & other critical parts for The
Disk O' Inferno. When you hit something hard, you want
that other something to be the something that breaks, not your
something. What are hammers, files, & many other tools made
of? Tool steel! The obvious choice for hard & strong parts,
especially where impacts are involved. Hudson Tool Steel provided
2 giant (28"x26"x1", 200 lb) plates of S7 tool
steel for the Disk. After extensive machining, about 150 of those
200 pounds ended up as chips in bottom of the milling machine.
Many other weapon parts were made from Hudson tool steel: M4 for
the Tail Tips, Disk Top Teeth, Disk Shaft, Tail Shaft, & the
Optional Tail Armor. Hudson used their experience to help the
Infernolab select the best tool steel alloys for each part, based
on machinability, intended use, expected loads, etc. Since 2002,
Hudson Tool Steel Corporation has been supplying tool steels,
high speed steels, carbon steels, and alloy steels to customers
around the country.
IQ Corporation
was pivotal in supplying the Infernolab with critical electrical,
mechanical, & electromechanical components for The
Disk O' Inferno. The effort of making a BattleBot (designing,
speccing electronics, wiring, testing, troubleshooting, etc.)
is very similar to IQC's specialties. IQC also supplied the Infernolab
with extensive 3D printer services, with which we made many colorful
edge guards that protected the myriad of pointy weapon tips &
sharp points. These 3D prints + some Bungee cords + Boy Scout
knots made for a safe robot. Specializing in designing, building,
& installing Electrical Control Systems, PLC programming,
and HMI programming, IQC strives to deliver a superior solution
within your budget and within your time frame. Their project methodology
results in a superior turnover documentation package that allows
their customers to take full ownership of the system. In addition,
they strive to train all of their customers to have a complete
understanding of the system capabilities available to them.
NPC Robotics
has a long history of developing motors, wheels, gearboxes, etc.
for wheelchair & military applications, so NPC knows how to
make a durable, robust, & reliable product! The design of
The Disk O' Inferno
dictated that the robot body needed to be extreeeeemely thin--it
was just about the shortest (if not the shortest) robot in BattleBots
2016. We designed ourselves into a corner, limiting our options
for motors & gearboxes for the drive & weapons. Unfortunately,
we couldn't shoehorn in NPC products, which were our #1 choice
for motors & gearboxes. So, we turned to NPC for their small,
durable wheels with machined bores. The wheels held up great!
And, even though much brainstorming between NPC & us didn't
result in a configuration where we could use NPC drive products,
they were still generous to add financial support the build of
The Disk O' Inferno! They're always a pleasure to work with &
are happy to provide engineering recommendations, drawings, &
other technical information that you need to evaluate their products.
They even drove out from Minnesota in a parts-laden truck, just
to provide personal support to teams in the BattleBots 16 event!
NPC Robotics specializes in the rapid design, prototyping, testing,
& production of innovative electric and mechanical motion
systems for military and commercial clients. BlackDog
Robotics was formed as a division of NPC Robotics with
a strong desire to assist law enforcement, first responders, &
the military by providing a resilient & dependable modular
robot. The goal: to design & develop a reliable & durable
adaptable robotic tool to assist at high-risk scenes by providing
planners and decision-makers with real-time critical information
to make optimized outcome decisions.
Since 1968, the NTMA
(National Tooling & Machining Association) Training Centers
of Southern California have trained more than 50,000 men
& women for a career in the machining, tooling, and manufacturing
industry. They offer a well-developed curriculum that combines
classroom instruction & computer lab experience with real-world
shop floor experience on state-of-the-art equipment. Since 2013,
NTMA has hosted the NRL,
their own 15-pound robot combat league fo rhigh school & college
students. For The Disk O' Inferno,
NTMA handled almost all of the machining, material acquisition,
purchasing, coordinating with other shops & suppliers, &
assembly.
Panasonic
Avionics products let you do the following on an airplane:
watch Real Steel, use Wi-Fi to look at BattleBots pictures on
Facebook, charge your laptop & smartphone at your airplane
seat to not run out of battery while watching BattleBots videos
on YouTube.
They're the company that has been making in-flight entertainment
systems for over 35 years! Panasonic Avionics connects the business
and pleasure of flying, just as the Infernolab connects the business
and pleasure of fighting robots. The next time you find yourself
watching BattleBots episodes on the high-resolution touchscreen
monitor on the back of the airplane seat in front of you, thank
Panasonic Avionics not only for entertaining you but also for
supporting the Infernolab with a very generous financial donation
towards The Disk O' Inferno's
high-end purchased components.
Q-Mark
designs & manufactures probe styli and associated tooling
for CMMs (Coordinate Measuring Machines) & machine tool probe
systems. Any precision machine shop or manufacturing business
should have a CMM setup to be able to measure complex and high-precision
parts. One of the most critical parts of a CMM is the probe itself,
the feature that touches the part during the measurement process.
If the CMM is expected to measure accurately, its probe must have
been manufactured with tremendous precision! Q-Mark also has a
full machine shop, with which they machined the chain guards on
The Disk O' Inferno's
tail weapon. These guards held up during battle, never breaking,
always protecting the tail weapon's sprocket & chain. We had
te pleasure of returning for a full refund a whoooole lot of unused
spare chain & connecting links that we never ended up needing
to use, thanks to these chain guards! And, as an added bonus,
the chain guards acted as excellent handling wheels. The Disk
O' Inferno was designed to be serviced from underneath by removing
the floorpan. Upside-down on our workbench in the pits, the chain
guards allowed us to roll the robot back & forth, wheelbarrow-style,
to wrangle it while wrenching on it.
Revelation
Records was not only a generous sponsor of The
Disk O' Inferno but also a loooong-time supporter of robot
combat (by sponsoring Gammatron & Gammacide in the good old
days)! Revelation Records assisted the Infernolab's 2016 effort
with funds & t-shirts (the shirts that team members, fans,
friends, sponsors, & family sport proudly not only on camera
but on a spirited night on the town). Reproductions of the original
Revelation Records run of t-shirts are available at the BattleBots
Store, where a portion of your purchases comes back to
the Infernolab, gets spent on new robot parts, & then goes
right back out into the arena--the circle of life! They also run
RevHQ,
a one-stop solution to all your indie, punk, hardcore, emo, rock,
& metal needs. They are one of the original online indie stores
& have been rapidly growing since their inception in 1997.
RevHQ was created in order to build on the growing mail order
department of the label Revelation Records. They appreciate their
loyal customers, &, in return, they like to make available
the music they love at the cheapest prices, while providing the
best & fastest possible service. Everyone at RevHQ is a knowledgeable
fan of the music they sell. Hardcore passion goes into every order
packed (along with free stickers, zines, posters, samplers or
whatever they have lying around).
Servo
City provided a large percentage of the electronics in
The Disk O' Inferno.
Battery chargers, both high-current & small-gauge wire, wiring
tools (cutters, pliers, snippers, crimpers, etc.), heat shrink
tube, Velcro, electrical connectors, connector retention clips,
switches, PWM servo cables, grommets, small fasteners, cable strain
relief clamps, etc. etc. Servo City also sells oodles of electrical
& mechanical components & kits for smaller, more benevolent
robotics applications. Servo City is an online storefront that
provides a large selection of mechanical components for use in
robotics, R/C applications, animatronics, videography, photography,
industrial projects, & a wide array of other fields. Servo
City provides high-quality products paired with fast & friendly
service to their customers around the globe.
 Specialty
Tool is known to every engineer, machinist, inventor,
or tinkerer in the Santa Barbara/Goleta area. What an impressive
resource nestled amongst the light industry around the Santa Barbara
airport. Need fasteners...RIGHT NOW? Walk up to the counter at
Specialty Tool, grab a stool, give the helpful folks your list,
& have your nuts, bolts, washers, wrenches, drill bits, crimp
connectors, wire, rivets, pins, threaded rods, standoffs, etc.,
etc., etc. in your hands in mere moments! In addition to supporting
local industry, Specialty Tool sponsored my fighting robots when
I was a UCSB student. Their fasteners held together Dr.
Inferno Jr., Towering
Inferno, Mini Inferno,
Hell on Wheels, &
Lame-O Inferno (&
Same-O Inferno), as well as BattleBots 2016's The
Disk O' Inferno. Specialty Tool's 120 ksi & 170 ksi
alloy steel button head, socket head, and flat head cap screws
not to mention several alloy steel shoulder screws, held The Disk
O' Inferno together through tortuous combat at BattleBots! Because
our design approach for The Disk O' Inferno was to make it mostly
comprised of a small number of very complicated parts, to greatly
reduced the required number of fasteners, those few fasteners
that were required needed to be of the highest caliber.
Wire
Cut Company is an EDM Shop specializing in complex parts
for the aerospace, medical, semiconductor, commercial, & automotive
industries in Southern California. 2 excellent applications for
EDM in The Disk O' Inferno
vs. conventional forms of machining. 1: Cutting a large piece
out of a tough material. The 48-pound disk for The Disk O' Inferno
was made of 1 giant hunk of tool steel: 23" diameter (not
counting its tooth!), 1" thick. The perimeter & bore
(both of which are high-precision features) were cut in 1 EDM
setup, which shortened the time required on the later mill operations,
allowed for 2 machines to be kept busy in parallel, & shortened
the overall machining time of this part. 2: Cutting a profile...a
loooong profile...as in a 13" deep profile, in 1 pass! The
tail frame for The Disk O' Inferno is 1 giant piece of aluminum.
How giant? Before machining, it was a 115-lb billet; after final
machining, it weighed about 16 pounds. Most of that weight was
removed in 2 EDM setups performed by Wire Cut Company.
Wire
Tech EDM Wire TEch EDM fabricated the optional tail armor
parts for The Disk O' Inferno.
The EDM process, vs. traditional machining methods (cutting, sanding,
grinding, etc.), worked great for these tool steel plates. Flexible
& configurable, The Disk O' Inferno could be set up with a
couple of the offensive teeth removed & one of these extra
defensive pieces of armor attached to the tail. Wire Tech EDM
Service is a Job Shop specializing in Wire EDM and EDM Hole drilling
including large hole drilling and small hole drilling.
Woody's
Precision Grinding performed surface grinding on the critical
disk & tail weapon shafts and the optional tail armor for
The Disk O' Inferno.
The parts were ground. The parts were precise. The parts experienced
precision grinding. They worked beautifully. The mission of Woody’s
Precision Grinding, Inc. is to supply and produce the highest
quality in precision surface- and form-grinding in the machining
industry today. Since their opening in 1956, they have been dedicated
to customer satisfaction. The long-term relationships they build
with their customers are the foundation for their success and
have given them their reputation of high quality and service.
Their employees are attuned to the strategic priorities of their
company through communication, leadership, and focus on customer
needs.
Zane & Eric
Hansen are awesome. I worked with Eric at PTCG in Boston
from 1993 to 1994. We worked on software to optimize freight trucking
companies' operations. We drove the same car, had similar hairdos,
& Eric's the only other person I know who had the MUTE - Tonal
Evidence [USA] compilation & thus suffered from resultant
natural aversion to Throbbing Gristle's ironically atonal "Subhuman."
Apart from UCSB, which I was attending when I commenced my fighting
robot career, Eric was my
very first BattleBots sponsor back in 2000. His company generously
donated funds to help me build Dr. Inferno Jr. & The Missing
Link. See
all those
"Worldmachine
Technologies - get
it in gear"
stickers?
16 years later, Eric has been raising his son properly. Zane is
a huge BattleBots fan. When the Infernolab reached out to Eric,
Eric reached into his own wallet & contributed our The
Disk O' Inferno effort.
|
Christian
Carlberg
LEGO
Reeves
Little
Magnetic
Moments
Mouser
Electronics
Portable
Power Systems
Jim
Smentowski
Switzer Communications
Systimatic
/ International Knife & Saw
Worldmachine Technologies
