will totes be damaged by repeated lifting?
 

One of our three designs for a lifting mechanism is by lifting under the tote's handle on the SHORT end. (The Ri3d team did this.)

Do we think the totes will hold up if lots of teams do this? Will the lifting handle break? Has anyone experienced failure of the totes from lifting in this way?

Any opinions on this will be welcome.

Re: will totes be damaged by repeated lifting?
 

The totes that come out of this will tell war stories about seeing fallen comrades be dragged around on the field. I think the only totes that will do well at all are the yellow ones.
Either way if a tote or bin is impossible to use a ref will help with that accoridng to the rules.

Re: will totes be damaged by repeated lifting?
 

After what I would consider to be considerable use, the totes that The GreenHorns were lifting didn't have any structural issues with them. There was some cosmetic damage, but nothing serious.

Re: will totes be damaged by repeated lifting?
 

We were concerned about this as well. With our lifting design, we estimated that our robot would pull that handle out with roughly 15lbs of force per tote being held. For 6 totes, that meant about 90 lbs. I hung myself (~150lbs) off of one of these handles for a few seconds, and the handle did flex a bit, but immediately returned back to its original position when I let go of it. This gives us enough confidence to follow through with our design, but your mileage will vary depending on your design.

Re: will totes be damaged by repeated lifting?
 

These totes are commercial duty items, they are intended to last for many years to ship product to stores. It is not uncommon to see starters, alternators brake calipers and other heavy items shipped to auto part stores in them. So 50-75lbs is not uncommon. So I don't think that we will see that many damaged by lifting by the handle.

Re: will totes be damaged by repeated lifting?
 

We have cracked a tote by tipping a stack over. It still functions but it isn't as strong as it was.

Re: will totes be damaged by repeated lifting?
 

That doesn't mean they are being held cantilevered from the handle in those industrial applications.

Re: will totes be damaged by repeated lifting?
 

I think lifting the totes by the handle will not break the totes much, there will be exceptions of coarse. What worries me more is teams running into the totes with the corner of there robot that does not have bumpers. Those sharp corners will break the totes pretty easy in my mind. Once that happens, what is the structural integrity of the tote going to be like?

Re: will totes be damaged by repeated lifting?
 

This is where I'm concerned.
I don't believe that lifting will cause issues, but when a six high stack is knocked over by an over-zealous driver ...

I suspect that TOTES (and RECYCLE CONTAINERS) will be damaged and that teams will have to make their lifts accommodate for these imperfections.

Re: will totes be damaged by repeated lifting?
 

The rulebook has a rule about it being your drive team's responsibility to notice and complain about broken/imperfect game pieces. So I'd recommend that while you're waiting in pre-match queuing, keep a very close eye on the totes on your side of the field, and point broken ones out to the ref.