With many fearsome weapons appearing, the protection of your Antweights innards has become increasingly important. Choosing the right armour for your Antweight can take a lot of thought - too light and it may not be able to adequately protect against spinners, too heavy and you may not be able to include your chosen weapon. Getting the balance between weight, cost and easiness to work with is difficult.
Possible Armour Materials
Many different types of armour have been seen over the years in Antweights, here is a guide to the most common ones that have been used:
- Cardboard - Not used so much now, this was popular in the early days of Antweights, as it was light, reasonably strong and easy to work with. With more damaging modern Antweights, it is not advisable to use card unless you need something incredibly light.
- Household Objects - Again not used so much now, but still seen at events, people used CD cases, Duct Tape etc. Many Antweights still use these as armour, but they are gradually upgrading to better suited materials.
- Polycarbonate - Still very popular and has been in use for several years. Relatively easy to work with, light and fairly inexpensive. Many regard it as the best alternative to using metal.
- Aluminum - Not as light as Polycarbonate, but easy to work with and quite cheap to buy and replace. Both Polycarbonate and Aluminum provide good protection but cannot hold up to some modern spinners. Titanium is generally considered better than Aluminum as it is lighter, but stronger.
- Titanium - Rarely seen a few of years ago, now Titanium has really taken off in all weight classes and it is now quite common to see at events. Even thin panels of it can hold up well against most spinners in Antweights. Generally better suited to many tasks than Aluminum.
- Carbon Fibre/Fibreglass - Generally more difficult to work with, as you have to make it with resin and fibres of material. Like Titanium, it is very strong but also very light and is seeing increased use within Antweights.
- HDPE - Has recently seen a surge in popularity among Antweight builders, as it is light, strong and easy to work with as well as being relatively inexpensive. HDPE performs impressively when up against spinning disk weapons, and using a soldering iron it is even possible to weld separate pieces together.
Balancing your armour between weight, strength and cost is very important, and many people see Titanium as a good solution. The best thing to do is choose the armour that suits your Antweight best and do not to over do it by over protecting your robot.
