If anyone saw team 5425 RVA Coder Collective from Richmond, VA at the Virginia Regional last year, their robot featured a good amount of carbon fiber including around 24 feet of tube, an electronics panel, and about 20 feet of rods. We supplied the carbon fiber for them as well as helping mentor the team on how to best utilize the carbon.
We are a small business in Richmond, VA called NP Technology, started and staffed by FIRST alumni that specializes in composite manufacturing. Most of our products are custom parts, made to order, but we've started shifting towards making standardized parts that are common in the FIRST community. Recently we've seen interest in 2" x 1" rectangular tubing for FRC as well as channel to match the tetrix channel commonly used in FTC.
When we were in the FIRST organization, on team 1522 Defenders of the Multiverse, we frequently wished we could use composite materials, but always found them prohibitively expensive. We've since found out, however, that it doesn't have to be, and have had great success in creating high quality composite components without the restrictive price tag.
If anyone would like more information, feel free to check out our website:
www.nptechva.com, which has a few pictures of Coder Collective's robot, or send us an email at
nptecva@gmail.com.