Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

Is it legal to mount the pneumatic components (i.e. regulator, tank, solenoid (not the compressor)) with zipties?

I think it made it through the flow-chart successfully, but I said it was "not a safety hazard".

How has your team mounted pneumatics in the past?

Thanks

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

lol our tanks are mounted with zipties. not the compresser!! we screw down regualtors, but i see no problem with ziptieing them. im not a sticler on the rules tho, so you may wana double check this one

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

Yeah we are taking off all our bolts and screws and holding the entire robot together with zip-ties to save weight. ;)

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

We've done it with Zip ties, It works fine.

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

Its legal but ugly. Of couse this late in the build no one will complain. Just what components do you want to mount w/zip ties?

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

If you do it nicely it can be barely noticeable, or even pretty.

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

I would like to mount a tank, a regulator, a solenoid valve, pressure sensor, and a valve to dump the air. I know the kit came with mounting hardware for the regulators, but I'm not totally sure about how to mount the rest.

Rickertsen2 also said it was legal, does everyone agree? I didn't see anything in the rules against it, but I'm not very well versed in the rules and intentions of FIRST.

Thanks for your help

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

Yes it is legal, we've done it before.

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

Yea, it's legal. We've mounted tanks with zipties in the past and it worked ok. I wouldn't mount cylinders or the compressor with zipties though.

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

we put zip ties on our tires.
we've been trying to figure out if this was legal or not.

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

Of course, the correct way to mount the tanks and valves is to machine a bracket for each. However, zip ties are perfectly fine. If you are really concerned about appearance, and have a little weight to spare, hose claps work well too.

Re: Pneumatic Mounting with Zipties?
 

<start serious answer> (not my normal, flip, smart-alecky self) The very best thing I can recommend to you is to put down your tools, sit down and go through ALL the rules carefully and completely. Don't touch your robot again until you are finished reading. That may seem like a dumb recommendation three days before the ship date, but it is probably the most important thing you can do.

The questions you are asking, and your admission that you "are not very well versed in the rules and intentions of FIRST" is just waving a huge red warning flag at us. You may have averted one illegal parts use by working through the information in this thread. But if you don't know the rules then the odds are that you have accidentally installed multiple other rules infractions on your robot that you don't know about. Stop building, read the manual, and find as many of those potential problems as possible. It will be 1,000,000 times better to find them now while you still have some time to correct them, than to show up at a competition and have the inspectors disqualify your robot because you are not able to correct a rules infraction. And it will be a whole lot more efficient for you to learn the rules yourself than to post a gazillion questions about your robot on here and asking for everyone's opinion of the legality.

Just trying to help. Good luck! <end serious answer>

Geez, I managed to get through the whole thing without saying "RTFM"!!! :D

-dave