Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesCH95
The clippard tanks we used were acquired through the AM FIRST Choice program. I believe AM simply re-sells Clippard tanks.
The risk of plastic tanks is obviously controversial. I'll relate a conversation I had with a lawyer when I was interested in selling potato cannons (another hobby of mine). He made a very good point that is very pertinent to this topic.
His professional opinion was that no matter the disclaimer I had customers sign that I could be held liable for any damages or injuries incurred though the use of a potato cannon I made and sold because there is NO NEED for a potato cannon, it's a toy. Car makers are generally safe from accidents and injuries incurred though the use of their cars because there is a genuine NEED to drive one.
In FRC we accept the risk of using a mill, late, welder, lead-acid battery, etc. because we NEED to assume those risks to build a robust and competitive robot. We do not have to accept the risk of creating shrapnel by using a plastic tank when metal tanks are available. The only functional difference is weight, and weight can be shed elsewhere in basically every robot design that I've ever seen.
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There are plenty of competitive teams that don't use a mill, lathe, or welder (I have never had a student weld anything on team I have been on in 12 years of FRC, doesn't mean I don't think other teams should do it). We needed to use light weight tanks just as much as we needed to use aluminum axles instead of steel. There are places to save weight but buying plastic air tanks is easier. Also AndyMark sales a variety of air tanks, some of them are from Clippard and others are not.