Are Pre-Manufactured Parts Legal?

[EliStevens12]

My FRC team has been building a robot that has a drawer Slide as a handle we were wondering if this is considered legal? Our main question was, Are pre-manufactured parts legal, and if they are is there anything else prohibiting us from being able use a drawer slide?

[FrankJ]

Yes manufactured parts are legal assuming they meet the limitations in the rules. It is best to read through the robot rules. They would be a COTS item. I don't know of anything specifically against a drawer slide

[EliStevens12]

Thank you for the help.

[Pretzel]

While a drawer slide makes it sound as though this is a part you purchased that you didn't fabricate yourself, I just felt the need to step in and clarify. If it a "pre-fabricated" in the sense that you bought it from a store or retailer, it is considered a COTS (common off the shelf) part and it legal.
If it is a part that you fabricated BEFORE the build season, being "pre-fabricated" in that sense, then it is not legal. In addition, you may not fabricated another part identical to something produced during the off-season unless you had previously made public those designs. This is to prevent teams from essentially building an entire drivetrain that they will use in competition before the season even starts. You are however allowed to tweak a design that your team worked on during the offseason provided that your competition bot's parts were entirely created or assembled within the build season and you didn't make a carbon copy of what you produced In the offseason.

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by Pretzel

.. it is considered a COTS (common off the shelf) ...

Just a minor clarification, COTS = "Commercial Off The Shelf"

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Eli,
Yes you may use it and if you do, you must list it on your BOM.