Is Carbon Fiber allowed?
 

Is carbon fiber an allowed material for use on robots? Thanks!

Re: Is Carbon Fiber allowed?
 

yes but make sure you dont exceed the cost limit.

Re: Is Carbon Fiber allowed?
 

The material would be allowed as long as it is under $400 per unit that you purchase/get donated. If it is donated it also has to be available to other teams to purchase from that vendor in the quantities you get it in.

Re: Is Carbon Fiber allowed?
 

How about Fiberglass?

Thanks :-*

Re: Is Carbon Fiber allowed?
 

Same response as for carbon fiber.

I know that one of the teams on Einstein last year used a pultruded fiberglass arm. No problems with inspection.

Re: Is Carbon Fiber allowed?
 

Our team found a company that is providing us with uni-directional carbon fiber sheets about 4'x2' with the resin already in it. you can form it by heating it up to about 300 degrees and then bending it around a mold. They gave us an estimated cost of about $100 a sheet.

Re: Is Carbon Fiber allowed?
 

does this company wanna donate some of those to our team as well? lol

Re: Is Carbon Fiber allowed?
 

In regards to using carbon fiber, I would recommend to go over the application that it would be for throughly and make sure that you really want to use the carbon fiber. In the past my team used it for our chassis 2 years in a row and i was not pleased with it either of the times. YES, it is light when you buy it, but as it is known for it's strength, I know it for being a pain when bolting things to it. If you do not lay epoxy down or put a big flange washer and you just bolt something to it the honey comb will compress and then you loose all the integrity in that area. If it up to your team to use it, but as a veteran in using it i would not recommend it at all. Too much work and money. However, there are good uses for it and if used correctly it is a great part.

--hope this helps

Re: Is Carbon Fiber allowed?
 

last year my team used a fiberglass arm and it did the job... if you have someone on your team that knows how to use it its not to bad to work with. what we did for bolting things to it is we put wood in where we needed to put something on it...

Re: Is Carbon Fiber allowed?
 

Composites are allowed as long as they meet the cost and availability requirements. Fabricating with them requies different methods then metal. Sounds like the company is offering you some high temp prepeg material. If your team doesn't have someone who is experienced with laying up prepegs, You may not want to try to master these skills this late in the build season. This would make a good off season project.