Carbon Fiber For Your Project
 

Hello everyone,

With thanks to Webmaster Brandon we were permitted to let the forum members know about our advanced composite products.

Our company West Coast Composites engineers and fabricates advanced composite sheets, sandwich panels and shapes. We have had many inquires from people in robotics who were looking for such materials, and at an affordable price. Please visit our website www.wccomposites.com and see if we can help with your needs.

We are also looking to sponsor a team with some product, so if you are a team with some high potential please contact us.

Regards,
Jeff Dimitry
Product Engineer
WCC
www.wccomposites.com

If you're looking for a team that's high potential, try all 800-something of us. I'm sure more than one of those teams would be willing to have your sponsorship. :)

Now if we can get FIRST to change the rules to allow us to use Carbon Fiber........

...and Titanium! :D

Or Beryllium! (I have to ask...who the heck would actually use beryllium?)

Probably an alloy is used because doing a quick search on Beryllium shows its posionous.:ahh: Magnesium is right underneath that and I know that has been used in robotics applications for strong armor. Of course it might just be a safety issue that they banned these metals because even magnesium is something you may not want on a robot because once it catches on fire it blinds.
What advantage is there in using titanium??? Sure it has the highest yield strength of all the metals. Plus that stuff is expensive.

Titanium is super super light :D. Its price to weight ratio is not so appealing however.

Cory

Not quite.. I played lacrosse for a couple of years with a trusty 6 foot long titanium alloy stick.. Every other defenseman I played with eventually broke their stick, but I never even dented mine through four years.. And yes, I do actually play the game agressively like I am supposed to..


And the best part is- this 5'1/2" stick was only 60$ With three of those you could build an invincible frame- superlight and superstrong.. Now I just gotta figure out how to sneak it on my robot..

potential sponsorship
 

Jeff:

I would love to speak with you regarding sponsorship.

We have an amazing & successful program, but no permanent sponsors. We also are doing an off-season project in which we could use any materials we choose.

If you are interested, I could send you our program overview sheet. Thanks for your interest.

Al Ostrow
Team Leader
Team 341

The problem with both titanium and carbon composites is not the cost. At least not fron FIRSTs view. It is the hazards inherent in working with these materials.

Titanium is best joined by welding which must be done in a VERY inert environment, usually a purged box. A standard inert gas welder is usually not good enough.

Carbon composite has a large potential for very nasty splinters if not machined correctly or if it breaks. I work with the stuff every day and get more than my share of splinters. Most of them come out, eventually.

While both raw materials are relatively expensive, it is the working of them that really costs. Especially if you don't know what you are doing or cut corners on the proper equipment.

Thats a first for hearing that.