Battery tube / body thickness

[MrNaz]

I am designing a flashlight, and was wondering about the necessary thickness of the tube walls. I am designing it to be 2mm thick in most places, but cutting 1mm patterns into it. Also, the threads would be ~1mm deep, meaning that the tube would be 1mm thick in some places. Is this too thin? What thicknesses are other flashlights' tube walls?

Thanks,
- Naz.

 

[dom]

The Zebralights are 1mm thick.
Your light should be fine just as long as you don't use it for whacking or levering things

Cheers
Dom

 

[Anglepoise]

You might run into problems if your design calls for "O" Ring grooves.
This has caught me out on a few designs I have come up with where you run out of metal.

I have got as low as 0.025" but recommend a better grade of Aluminum,such as 7075 T6 if you are going to go this thin. Very strong,tough and hard. And it will handle wall thicknesses of 0.025"

 

[MrNaz]

I don't suppose there's any chance of getting that in metric is there?

0.025" = 0.635mm

That's good to know. My design calls for a minimum wall thickness of 1mm, with the stock thickness being 2mm. Threading, grooves and other details will not result in wall thickness less than 1mm.

7075-T6 is what I was thinking of using, and if that is successful, I will be making a Ti version. Is Ti able to handle sub-1mm thicknesses? I've heard it's a little less hard than 7075 Al.

 

[kuksul08]

Wouldn't 1mm thick aluminum just dent really easily? If it's heat treated then maybe it's stronger but still... seems way thin.

 

[gadget_lover]

1mm = ~ 40 thousandths (.0393 inch), which is almost as thick as 16 guage sheet metal (.051 inch)

It's tendency to dent is reliant upon many factors. The thickness is just one factor. The metal alloy is another. So is the weight of the object.

An often overlooked factor is that some places on a light are subject to more abuse than others. The widest parts will often hit first. The bezel and tailcap are most often the parts that are dinged. With that in mind, a general purpose small light might very well get away with very thin walls for the battery tube but thicker parts for bezel and tailcap.

Daniel.