[clydefrog88]

i have experience with all three.

Titanium is very much cost prohibitive. For a FIRST related project I can't imagine an application where it would be any better than any other material. Anything that's titanium could most likely be steel or aluminum.

Composites such as carbon are excellent materials. The parts need to be specifically designed and molded for a purpose to reach their maximum effectiveness. What i mean is: buying a sheet of premade piece of carbon would most likely not be as effective as a custom fabricated piece. Using commercially purchased stock usually requires so much design compormise that you end up compromising performance for ease of construction (It's not always true). I would really recommend custom fabrication if you want to use carbon. It's not as hard as you might think. Cloth is available online and you might be able to find scrap cloth from a local manufacturer (Composites companies tend to regard relatively large pieces as scrap). Resins are not difficult to come by either. I have hand-laid with West Systems epoxy resin in the past. While its not the best in the world, it is comparatively cheap and easy to work with. The real failing points of composites for FIRST applications are repairability and ease of use. It's one thing to bend an aluminum manipulator during a match and quite another to stress facture a piece of cf. If you have any questions about fabrication or implementation, send me a pm and I'd be glad to help.

In the end i think aluminum is almost unbeatable in every FIRST application.

If you're looking for a composite that's "springy" traditional fiberglass is the way to go.