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Re: Carbon Fiber
Team 842 has used fiberglass for their robot chassis for several years now. It's thick and beefy fiberglass, but it seems to hold up very well. I would assume that Carbon Fiber frame rails would be quite similar in robustness.
From my experiences in designing around Carbon Fiber, the connections and interfaces with other components are always the toughest challenges. CF is so strong and can handle so much load, that the connections tend to be bigger and heavier than the metal component the CF replaced.
I love CF, as two of my road bicycles can prove. But I'm not quite sure the advantages it provides in the FIRST world outweigh its difficultly in use, and the obvious time constraint to design around it. YMMV, best of luck.
BEN
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