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Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri
another good part about pvc arms is that they wont dent or bend out of shape like some aluminum arms. And if you are worried about it shattering.. how easy is it to cut out the broken part, cut a new piece to size, and put it in with 2 couplers and some glue! woohoo go pvc!
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Tom beat me to it, but this fact was a driving force behind our decision to use PVC for a telescoping arm to reach the bar last year. We knew we'd be subject to punishment from teams cause we were reaching from the ground, and we knew there was a chance for the arm to get bent, so we chose PVC for it flexibility. We had our arm literally wrapped around a pole a couple of times, and it was fine. I saw a team at Lone Star have a metal arm wrapped around a pole, and it was ugly.
So, in summary, PVC definitely has its uses, and you just need to consider what you're designing for, like any other engineering choice.