[EricH]

Ask ChrisH--he worked with the sponsoring company for work. I want to say that it was a 3D Systems machine, or something like that, but I could be wrong. Wasn't a Dimension, though. (I'm also guessing that there was some experimental stuff involved--I'm not entirely certain about that--or what was being played with--by any means.)

Nope, no metal reinforcement. Even the steel axles weren't reinforcement. As a matter of fact, the metal VEX wheels has some problems with their "fins" bending during assembly. Though that design would be a REALLY interesting one to take full-scale--it provided a very smooth ride due to the sheer number of rollers. It combined an "internal" hub (like most custom wheels, say 357) with an "external" hub (like the AM wheels), and when assembled was strong enough for VEX-scale use (EDUBot at the time).

The machine type was definitely one that could be used for industrial production.