[Brandon Holley]

Here are a few ideas of what we have printed over the past couple seasons:

-Our 2012 shooter wheel was custom molded to give us the exact shape/diameter we wanted on a wheel with almost all of its mass on the outside rim. To make this wheel we 3D printed a mold, machined a hub, and poured the urethane around the mold. Oh yeah, and we embossed '125' in the wheel, because why not? (See attached images)


-Also in 2012, we 3D printed components to center the ball as it went up our lift into the shooter wheel. This ensured we caught the ball in the same place on the wheel each time.

-Again in 2012 we printed a gearbox to power our intake/elevator. It utilized 2 FP motors and the first 2 gear stages of the plastic FP gearbox. We ran through 2 quick iterations of the gearbox, and it worked flawlessly all season.

-This past year we printed 'cable guides' to mount over the pulleys on our lift. This prevented the sailing line we used to lift our elevator from jumping off the pulleys themselves. Again a couple iterations of these and they worked flawlessly all season.


There are so many applications for 3D printing in FRC. We've been using printed parts for years, and we're always finding new applications. Keep your eyes open and dont be afraid to try something out (just make sure you give yourself enough time to implement a backup plan if something goes awry).

-Brando