silicone tube wheels

After attending Minnesota Massacre 2022 with Eric, who built Bit Error, I was inspired by his robot to build some wheels that utilize tubing as the tread. After a few minutes of browsing on McMaster-Carr I came across the 35A Silicone Tubing and decided to give it a try. The tube is pretty easy to cut by hand into rings and is very grippy. After putting it through its paces I determined that the tube should be adhered to the rim. I utilized 3M PR40 to glue the silicone tube to the TPU hub.

The wheels held up great at IFRC 2022, even taking some direct hits without failing.