[dtengineering]

Okay, thank you for explaining your thoughts on the matter. Before I go too much further, let me say that if the intent of the rules was to include 3D printed parts, then I'm good with that... but consider....

What is a 3D printed part?

It is not a "plastic or metal sheet", nor is it a "plastic spacer". It never was. Thus it is not included in 2.b.1. Items included in 2.b.1 may be modified however you want, however this is completely irrelevant to a 3D printed part. Note that there are some subtle interpretations here... the phrasing "plastic or metal sheet" could leave some ambiguity as to whether the term "sheet" applies to the term "plastic"... if you interpret the rule to say that "sheet" does not apply to "plastic" then any shape of plastic would be allowed, including plastic feedstock for 3D printers. However given that, plastic spacers are specifically mentioned in this rule, we have to assume that the term sheet does apply to plastic... otherwise plastic spacers (as well as anything else made of plastic) would have been inherently included within the term "plastic". Thus 2.b.1 allows plastic sheet and plastic spacers, but not plastic wire/rod that is fed into 3D printers.

This means that to use a 3D printed part you are using the "Raw materials" section under 2.d.1. This section specifically excludes, by definition, raw materials that have been processed or manufactured into a functional form. So you could use unlimited quantities of the ABS feedstock for your printer, but the process of printing turns it into a "processed or manufactured" form, thus meaning that it is no longer a raw material. This means that as soon as you take a raw material and process or manufature it to make it functional... you can't use it.

I'll agree with you that that doesn't make a lot of sense... but that is what it says.

There are a couple of simple modifications to the rules that would allow for 3D printed parts. 2.b.1 could include "plastic wire or rod", or 2.d.1 could be modified to say, "The definition of raw material are items before being processed or manufactured into a functional form by a non-team member."

To help explain in more detail, I will suggest 3 questions to consider:

1) Is the plastic wire used to feed a 3D printer included as "sheet" or "spacer" under 2.b.1? (No.)

2) Is the plastic wire (which is definitely a "raw material") used to feed a 3D processed or manufactured into a functional form during the process of 3D printing? (Yes.)

3) If the answer to #2 is "yes" then the 3D printed part is no longer a "raw material", is it? (No, and thus it is no longer allowed on the robot.)

I'll admit that you could put a non-functional, decorative 3D printed part on the robot, as the definition in 2.d.1 only specifies functional forms as destroying "raw material" status.

To many reading this, analyzing the text to this level of detail might seem a bit ridiculous... but writing clear and unambiguous documents that mean what you actually want them to mean is a very, very difficult process. Studying ambiguities and unintentional "glitches" in technical documents can help us learn to avoid them in our own writing. Being an engineer does not release one from the requirement to communicate clearly... in fact, in many ways, it demands it.

Jason