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How to Cut CNC Machining Costs

Known for a having a hardworking and meticulous nature, Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” While you probably aren’t reading this article for tree-felling advice, what Abe was getting at is that careful planning is important for any […]

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Design Methods to Improve Torsional Rigidity

Products that are subject to a torsional load often require analysis like the analysis used for bending stiffness. The main differences are the specific material property to be used (Shear Modulus or Modulus of Rigidity) and the polar moment of inertia (which is very similar to the area moment of inertia used in bending). Torsion […]

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Heat Sink Design Guide & Considerations

In a world of ever-increasing electronics, our lives are continuously impacted by devices that incorporate some sort of heat-generating circuitry. When it comes to electronics that dissipate power in the form of heat during normal operation, it is often necessary to manage this heat, to ensure the components don’t exceed their maximum allowable temperatures. One […]

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How to Build a BattleBot Like a Pro, Part One: Rules and Combat Styles

Perhaps you watched BattleBots in the early 2000’s, or maybe you recently got into combat robotics and  thought to yourself “what goes into building one of these gladiator bots?” Well, we’re team RoboGym, and we’re here to answer your question. We’ve been building and refining our BattleBot, Deadlift for years, and we’ll be guiding you […]

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How to Build a BattleBot Like a Pro, Part Two: Design and Construction

If you want to know the general lay of the land when it comes to combat robotics and the different types of BattleBots, you can learn about that in Part One of How to Build a BattleBot Like a Pro. If you’re ready to get into the specifics of designing and building a combat robot […]

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Draft and Texture in Plastic Injection Molded Parts

It’s always a good idea to go through several drafts of any design before finalizing a part. Prototyping can help you get the right design, but you’ll need a different type of draft for a successful injection molded plastics project. In injection molding, draft is the angle that you apply to the vertical walls of […]

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Fiat 500 EV Conversion: Prototyping and Sourcing Parts

In this part of our Butterball electric vehicle conversion series of articles, we’re discussing prototyping and making parts vs. buying them off the shelf — and you can learn more about the genesis of the project, its mechanical design, and electrical system in our other articles. As a digital manufacturing company, we’re very familiar with […]

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Fiat 500 EV Conversion: Mechanical Design

Welcome to the next installment of our Butterball EV conversion! In case you didn’t read our introductory article, Butterball is our pet name for the cream-colored 1966 Fiat 500 that we converted to an electric vehicle this past year as a means to foster community here at Fictiv while we were all working remotely.  You […]

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Fiat 500 EV Conversion: Project Butterball

Welcome to our 4-part EV car conversion series! We started this project last year to learn about cars and foster community while we are all working remotely. In this article, we’ll give you an overview of our approach and the decisions our engineers made when turning our 1966 Fiat 500, Butterball, into an electric vehicle. […]

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Builds & Banter: Building a Champion BattleBot the RoboGym Way

Gladiatorial. Technological. Destructive. Exciting. These are all words that describe the television spectacle known as BattleBots. But before the sparks fly and the destruction begins, a lot of work goes into making the machines ready for the arena. We’re sitting down to talk with Team RoboGym about their BattleBot named Deadlift, the thrills of competing […]