SMC Solenoid Manifold Deem NOT LEGAL at SVR

[kellymc]

I wanted to relay this information to other teams who may be using this part on their robot. During our inspection this morning, our inspector questioned the use of a 4 port aluminum SMC solenoid manifold on our robot, and whether this part had a working pressure capability of 125PSI.

I wanted to bring this to other teams attention to let them know about this issue during inspection so that they can be aware of the potential problem that can be made during inspection through the inclusion of a part on your robot which can be purchased from a FIRST authorized vendor using KOP voucher funds.

The real kicker, was that many other teams were using the exact same part had readily passed through inspection without even a question as to this "offending" part. Instead, our inspector would not let the issue pass, he would not approve the robot without a specification sheet from the vendor or otherwise be proven that an aluminum manifold would be capable of operating at 125psi even though the part was located on the low pressure side of the pnuematics system.

I wanted to pass this along as a word of warning to other teams who utilize this part. We missed 3.5 hours of practice this morning due to this issue, don't let this happen to your team.