Homebuilt ROVs Forum

I thought this stuff called Last-A-Foam would work but it is only sold in full sheets 4x18x100" and that is over $1300. R-3325 is good for 1200' water depth. I need 1000' working depth.

Any other options anyone knows about for small quantities?

Another option I am looking into is making my own. I can get micro balloons but would need macro balloons as well to keep the density reasonable.

i used 3M microballons with epoxid to model my rov-housing. I've paid ~30$ for 5L microballons / glass bubbles (0,21mg/cm³) http://shop1.r-g.de/art/210125

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... ctic-foam/

what you mean with Macro-ballons?

That sounds like the cheapest option at this point. Also I could mold and cast it then to make several spares.

Macrospheres are larger glass spheres that help reduce the weight and come in various sizes.

I found some macrospheres off ebay when I cast mine, but I haven't seen them since. The ESS SF-22 or SF-25 setups should work. finding them is the tricky part. http://www.esyntactic.com/products-solu ... ler-sf-22/

Oops, I'm a little late to the party... Oh well!

Anyways, although it isn't syntactic foam, it is apparently made by Last-a-Foam which is what you mentioned earlier.
When coated it apparently is good down to 600'. Now I just need to figure out how to coat it!

https://www.bluerobotics.com/store/buoy ... /float-r1/

Astronaut wrote:Oops, I'm a little late to the party... Oh well!

Anyways, although it isn't syntactic foam, it is apparently made by Last-a-Foam which is what you mentioned earlier.
When coated it apparently is good down to 600'. Now I just need to figure out how to coat it!

https://www.bluerobotics.com/store/buoy ... /float-r1/

Astronaut,
You beat my by minutes in posting the link to Blue Robotics!

I can't get to the page from here so I'll check it later. General Plastics is local to me. Their R-3315 would be perfect as it is good to 1400' coated.
https://www.generalplastics.com/r-3300.html

Astronaut wrote:Oops, I'm a little late to the party... Oh well!

Anyways, although it isn't syntactic foam, it is apparently made by Last-a-Foam which is what you mentioned earlier.
When coated it apparently is good down to 600'. Now I just need to figure out how to coat it!

https://www.bluerobotics.com/store/buoy ... /float-r1/

Good Find... I didn't know Blue Robotics was carrying this... I was just in the process of trying Fiberglass coated blue home insulation but this is making me rethink that as the R-3312 would definitely work. The price is not to bad either.

-Steve

My fiberglass covered foam insulation board didn't make it to 65 feet without crushing quite a bit. Lots of small bubbles when I brought it back up and it was a lot heavier!

I was surprised to see polyurethane-based foam was sold as "subsea" buoyancy. I know this foam is used in motor-sports as an "airbag". At high speed impacts it behaves like a soft sponge to absorb the impact. So its not a solid material and collapse under pressure. This is why it need to be coated...