Are these tanks legal?

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Having been involved at ground zero I can tell you that not all failures were at the port, not all were due to voids and not all were due to overtightening the hardware. There were a lot of issues. One of the most catastrophic I investigated was on a robot where the team had used metal hose clamps to mount the tanks. The inside of the clamp hardware produced stress on the side of the tank and that was where the failure occurred. Think about the Pillsbury dinner roll package when you press on a seam. This team had severely distorted the outside of the tanks. Inspectors have to make the decision to allow or not allow certain devices on robots in the interest of safety to students and volunteers. Why would anyone put an undocumented part on their robot. If you can't determine where they came from and what the actual part number is, then neither can we.
Please don't use metal hose clamps when ty-wraps work as well.

Not too dive off into the weeds too far... but I recall years (2010?) where zip-ties were specifically prohibited from being used to mount storage tanks. That practice does appear to be legal this year. What do you recall of past years' rules, Al?

Zip-ties aside, there are many options with which to secure air storage tanks (I like vibration damping loop clamps): http://www.mcmaster.com/#pipe-routing-clamps/=115wm73