Re: Steel on a FRC Robot
 

The cRIO housing is not made of steel. Even better, occasionally the material is presumed to be cast-iron. It is actually a cast magnesium alloy, considerably lighter than aluminum. The clips that hold in the modules, the screws, and possibly the decorative placards are indeed steel. You'll also find it in the inner components like the backplane connectors.

Greg McKaskle

Re: Steel on a FRC Robot
 

Last year as rookies we decided to build our two kickers out of steel. The combined weight of the two kickers when we finally assembled every thing put our bot at about 160 lbs. It was a nightmare trying to cut our weight down to a manageable level, and it was not something that we as rookies were ready to go through. Steel is a perfect material for some applications, for instance this year all of the shafts on our robot are 1/2" steel, but typically it will make a bot too heavy too quickly.

Re: Steel on a FRC Robot
 

Actually, we used steel pieces at the end of our kicker last year to give it extra power (we had a spinny kicker).

So I guess the answer is that there is a place for steel, on FRC robots, but not everywhere.

Re: Steel on a FRC Robot
 

If you decide to use steel, you definitely want to spend some time designing the parts to be as light as necessary. The neat thing about steel is that you can make strong parts from thin metal. Look at car bodies...