Can that claim be made when they plainly list four out of five aluminum bumpers as being "6061-T6 Aluminum"?
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Aluminum vs Steel Bumpers
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Can that claim be made when they plainly list four out of five aluminum bumpers as being "6061-T6 Aluminum"?
I would just change the description to read that it is made from aerospace grade aluminum. No bullshit after that, non specific, gives customers a warm fuzzy, and it isn't a misrepresentation.
OP
what I was thinking, barnes guys are like a quick trip for me so leaning that way sent them a email with some questions.
back to the topic at hand I don't think the aluminum bumper is beneficial for me when you are outweighing the price to the benefit, if I was building a purpose built rig that may be a different story.
Not all salesman fall into this category, but I can guarantee I’ll be having a chat with them tomorrow and IF the 6061-T6 info has been removed my screenshots of it won’t disappear. Sure would have been nice to see all of this (not that I wish it in anyone else) prior to my purchase.
Trade secrets are trade secrets.
If GR advertised their bumpers as being aluminum, they would be keeping their secret which isn't a problem.
Advertising it as being "Super lightweight 6061-T6 Aluminum" would look like they're not worried about their secret, IF it were true. FWIW, I believe mrblaine on that being not true.
Well said. I work for a company that makes food processing conveyor systems. We work exclusively in stainless steel for sanitary reasons and sometimes there are things we cant do for the customer because of the materials limitations.
Interested to see DrDMoney's bumper repair.
And also why it’s important for manufacturers to have accurate descriptions of their products. If indeed they used 6061-T6 this conversation wouldn’t have turned the way it did. Blaine would have responded more than likely like he did for the the UCF question and I wouldn’t have been butchered for not knowing it wasn’t 6061-T6...despite trusting their website.
Another way to achieve complicated shapes and tight rad bends is to extrude aluminum. You can get any alloy you want and get it tempered to boot...you just gotta pay the 10 to 20 grand to have a die made, and buy at least 250’
That picture of a damaged bumper is from MrB’s archives, mine is still intact, I’m just putting some knee guards on it so it will stay that way.
And then one could make an educated decision. If it had said simply “aluminum” I wouldn’t have bought it. Even worse I called them on it and they said 6961-T6 but still it doesn’t change that the print on the backside of their bumper said 6061-T6. Which is concerning. I didn’t look to see if there were any stress cracks at the bends prior to coating nor did I take photos of the back side of the bumper. Educational regardless.
You were butchered for being a pissy little bitch because you refused to believe those who know how shit works. It was your continual insistence that they were not correct that caused all the bullshit.
You weren't butchered for simply not knowing the GR bumper wasn't made from 6061.
Edit dammit Blaine beat me to it.
Edit dammit Blaine beat me to it.
There won't be any stress cracks even if you did know to look before because you CAN NOT do that tight of a bend in 6061 T6. It is not possible. I do not care what was printed on the bumper, I don't care what the website says, it is not possible and that will not change due to the properties of that particular grade of aluminum.
Good chance they may have used a least a small piece of that on the latest Mars rover. Let’s throw Genright a bone and suggest they advertise it as “interplanetary exploratory vehicle grade aluminum proven to be effective in the harshest of environments”.
True, “salesman” is not a dirty word or profession. Done properly, salesman can be extremely helpful in selecting the right product after gaining a thorough understanding of the client’s requirements, expectations and budget. However, budget and expectations do not always align and need to be reset. Failure to do this often leads to client dissatisfaction.
Another aspect about this that goes even further than material selection is which way the grain runs and why you have to pay attention to that during the design process. When you are doing as tight of a bend as possible, you will have to specify which way the grain runs through the product. You can get a tighter bend across the grain than you can going with the grain.
This whole mess reminds me of a conversation with our fabricators at one point many years ago. The bending shop and the laser shop got their little heads together and decided to make a large product out of some much cheaper aluminum in 6061 T-6 from overseas. They cut up the whole order and when they bent it, it broke at every bend. They did several, all broke.
They called us and wanted us to bail them out and buy more material. Why? Well, the stuff we cut up is breaking.
Did you call us and ask if you could use the cheaper material?
No.
Is the material incorrect?
It says 6061 T6 on it.
Have you made this part out of 6061 T6 previous?
Yes, many times.
What material did I specify on the bill of materials?
6061 T6
Okay, since you know that is the specified grade, you have bent parts successfully previous, that only leaves one answer which is you are not using 6061 T6 which is what I need the part made from. Go get some of the correct material and bend up our parts.
You aren't going to help us out and buy more material?
No, I didn't fuck this up, you two did. I didn't know about it, had you asked I would have told you not to cut more than a few test samples and try to bend them first.
But it is a lot of material.
Sorry, not my circus, not my monkey.
That picture really confuses me. I get the mold is screwed up but that is a detail that won't affect functionality by any appreciable amount. What confuses me is the rectangular hole you can see through the backside and why you can't see them on the other side where you are looking at it from the dirt side. WTF is going on with that?
True enough - if the 6061 reference is correct and not mis-direction. *shrug*
ejay
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That's a wheel from the Mars Curiosity Rover. My recollection is that it was designed to be as lightweight as possible and just tough enough to do it's job. Though they are breaking apart faster than expected. Then the tread pattern allows for different types of digging, scraping and excavating for the test equipment. The rectangle holes are part of that design. Also, the rectangles spell out JPL in binary, morse code or something. There are a neat wheel.
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