Pneumatic Tubing Specs

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

Andy-Mark tubing is .17 ID are they not selling 2011 illegal tubing?

Maybe they know something we don't?

Actually, this is precisely the reason FIRST needs to specify tolerances in the rulebook.

Does FIRST actually care about this difference, and how are the teams and inspectors supposed to know? The Q&A, with its delayed responses, blackout period and low readership is insufficient compared to the dead-simple alternative of "Ø0.160 ± 0.015 in" "MAX Ø0.175 in". (Note that Freelin-Wade specifies Ø0.160 ± 0.005 in for the ID of the polyurethane tubing in the kit, and Ø0.170 ± 0.004 in for their low-density polyethylene tubing. If FIRST didn't care which one teams used, they would want to specify a large enough tolerance to cover them both—hence ±+ 0.015 in.)

Edit: Wait—why am I giving a ± tolerance? I should have recommended MAX Ø0.175 in. FIRST can't possibly care enough to intend to prevent a team from competing with undersized tubing. (That has happened; an unfortunate consequence of enforcing the rules.)