This is a really interesting topic
(note to self: rate thread high).
Ken, in your 578 example above, I think the rules are clear: the gear made using Gleason's $1M machine is allowed because (1) the raw material is available to any team and it's cost won't cause the team to exceed the limit, and (2) Gleason is a recognized sponsor and its employees who fabricate the gear are considered team members.
Just as clearly, a composite frame made from raw materials that are not available to all teams at a cost that fits the rules would
not be allowed.
As an analogy that fits my own team's situation: Emerson has two nice rapid prototyping machines that could be used to make parts for 931. The first is a laser cutter. My team makes good use of this because the sheet materials we cut, such as steel, acetal, and acrylic, are available to any team and not overly expensive.
The other is a
3D Systems Viper SLA machine. This beauty can make parts that are similar to Nylon 6:6 in any shape we could dream up and CAD. But we don't use it. Why? Because the parts would not be legal for FRC. That is because the the raw material is
SI40 resin, which is only available in 10kg containers that cost $2500 each. So there is practically no way the team could correctly account for the material cost, even though the actual quantities used would be small.
__________________
Richard Wallace
Mentor since 2011 for FRC 3620 Average Joes (St. Joseph, Michigan)
Mentor 2002-10 for FRC 931 Perpetual Chaos (St. Louis, Missouri)
since 2003
I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
(Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97)