Legality of Fiberglass as a building material?

[Dripto]

We weren't able to find anything mentioning the legality of Fiberglass in the manual, does anyone know if its legal as a building material, or if it has been in past years? Thanks.

[Joe G.]

Perfectly legal, as long as it doesn't violate cost and other rules. 842 has been known for their pultruded fiberglass frames for several years. As a general rule, if a material isn't specifically stated as illegal, it probably is allowed.

[Mike Betts]

Because of venue restrictions (not to mention just plain good manners) I would not plan on being able to mix/cure resin in the pits at a competition. You should ask yourself, what do we do if this fails at the comp?

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Joe G.

Perfectly legal, as long as it doesn't violate cost and other rules. 842 has been known for their pultruded fiberglass frames for several years. As a general rule, if a material isn't specifically stated as illegal, it probably is allowed.

Depleted uranium is not banned... Does that mean that we can use it?

But honestly what if we were to get our hands on that stuff? How amazing would that be?

[548swimmer]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Depleted uranium is not banned... Does that mean that we can use it?

But honestly what if we were to get our hands on that stuff? How amazing would that be?

Little bit heavy, but otherwise awesome!

[falconmaster]

Its available from
http://www.creativepultrusions.com/

Most plastics distributors can order it

[Gdeaver]

Another source Bedford Reinforced Plastics, Inc.
http://www.bedfordplastics.com/

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by 548swimmer

Little bit heavy, but otherwise awesome!

They make it in different thicknesses, and the 1/8" stuff is strong and light. We've used it too. I hear it also works for arms?

[Henry Williams]

Even though it is legal there are a few things I would want to say.
Fiberglass is not very light
It is also somewhat brittle depending on shape etc.
I say both from experience as me and my friend were putting away an entire field's worth of the playing surface from Lunacy, aka regolith, and it took us a long time because if you picked up too many sheets at once it would crack, splinter, and form sharp edges.

Maybe my views are somewhat skewed from my experiences with fiberglass so maybe things will work out differently for you.

[Team 2811]

Fiberglass is very easy to break and if it does, you will have to take all of the rest of the fiberglass off. Then you will have to replace it. If this happens multiple times, the cost will really add up.

Just my advice. My team tried using fibergalss in 2009 during Lunacy. It was constantly breaking and we needed to replace it often. This really added up in our costs.

Good luck

[MrForbes]

Interesting, we used it for our chassis for 3 years and never had these problems. I guess it depends on how you design your robot....you have to use fiberglass in appropriate places, and design the thing properly, then it works fine. Like any other material, I suppose.

[Gdeaver]

It's all in the design, choice of material and construction techniques. We have made many light weight and durable arms from pultrusions. Never had a failure. I have seen many AL arms eat them selves. I have seen teams use poor construction methods with Pultrusions and watch them fail.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by squirrel

They make it in different thicknesses, and the 1/8" stuff is strong and light. We've used it too. I hear it also works for arms?

Where can one acquire these materials from?

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

It's all in the design, choice of material and construction techniques. We have made many light weight and durable arms from pultrusions. Never had a failure. I have seen many AL arms eat them selves. I have seen teams use poor construction methods with Pultrusions and watch them fail.

Same here, we've used it in simple but effective applications on our 2008 arm.

Machining/drilling holes in fiberglass is the only hassle. Masks and gloves along with goggles

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Where can one acquire these materials from?

See post #6 in this thread. Generally it's a good idea to read all the posts in a thread, before asking a question about the subject.