Automotive Motors

[Troehl]

Our team recently acquired a linear actuator from McMaster-Carr. It is a Duff-Norton TMD01. This COTS actuator and its motor is commonly used for opening trunks and hoods on custom cars. The actuator itself works perfectly for what we ask of it, without modification. We believe this complies with the letter and spirit of rule R29 of the 2016 manual as a "Select Automotive motor." Do you concur?

Any assistance is much appreciated.

[Kevin Sevcik]

R29 is pretty specific, even for this category. Is it a Window, Door, Windshield Wiper, Seat, or Throttle motor? No? Then it's not legal.

Even aside from that, it's not likely to be legal because it's a general purpose linear actuator that's occasionally used on cars. It's not an automotive specific motor occasionally used on FRC robots. The GDC is pretty big on what things are called by manufacturers, and your actuator is called a linear actuator, not a trunk opening motor, or a hood opening motor.

So, I'm afraid you're going to have to find a different solution.

[Troehl]

Thank you very much for your hasty reply. We'll get started on replacing that motor right away.