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Nick
Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 11802
Location: Sydney, NSW
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Brainstorming time:
I need a way to securely mount several small, low power eletronics packages that provides some shock mounting, cable retention, light weight, easy assembly, etc, etc. It also has to fit in a small space. Sounds impossible, right?
Then I remembered a packing technique for expensive electronics; the gear is wrapped in plastic like freezer bags and placed in a box which is then half filled with expanding urethane foam. the foam starts as a liquid and literally foams up to many times its volume before hardening. More plastic is laid over the inside of the boxe and then more foam fills up the remainer of the box. When you unpack it, you get a 2 part mould of the product inside a very tough foam shell.
The foam is available in spray cans as 'void filler' for building repairs. I figure that I can assemble the radio, gyro and mixer, stick them to a flat plate with all the wiring in place, put a freezer bag over everything, put a mould container over that, and pour in the foam.
When the foam sets I should have a block with tigh-fitting pockets for the electronics moulded in the bottom. it would be easy to include some mounting points inside the mould or just sandwich it into the frame.
I can see some problems here: the foam can be messy, cables could be trapped in the foam, foam could leak into the electronics during the moulding process - Can anyone see more potential problems / solutions? Keep in mind that Subliminal is really tightly packed and I can't fit a conventional plastic box. _________________ Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion
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Mon Apr 11, 2005 1:27 pm |
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Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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They used to have a system like that at a place I worked, but it was a big system used for packing shipping boxes.
It had two big pressurised 44-gallon drums of the chemicals that were connected via hoses to a spray-gun. You wrapped the thing you wanted to ship in plastic, then sat it in the box and sprayed expanding foam around it, then closed the lid while it expanded.
The warehouse/shipping guys really liked it over the conventional plastic-peanuts (that get everywhere), until one day after a few too many ale's down the pub at lunchtime, they came back a wee bit intoxicated and proceeded to attack each other with the spray gun and ended up both looking like the michelin man..
Another option might be the industrial-style velcro. I dont mean the wimpy fish-hook and carpet style stuff.. its available in stronger versions where the hook side is a solid plastic dual-pronged barb, and the fuzzy side is strong nylon loops.
One of the Gyrocopter guys used to use it to stick things all over his Gyro. Map cases, Oil bottles, radio's you name it. a few square inches of the heavy duty stuff would easily hold you to the ceiling, yet it still provides a little bit of "give" to provide some shock resistance.
The IBC's and radio etc in Scoopy Doo are mounted using pockets carved out of a very low-density foam similair to what you describe. The foam is cut to shape, stuffed in in layers, then spaces cut out to hold the receiver, gyro etc. Works Fine so far.. _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
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Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:02 pm |
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