Do you use 3d printed mounts?

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

We've used 3D printed parts for a number of years now, I think our first ones probably went onto robots around the 2008 timeframe.

Since then we've done all sorts of stuff from simple brackets for sensors/electronics, to protective housings for cameras, molds for urethane components and even bearing blocks for power transmission in our 2015 elevator.

We picked up some new sponsorship in the off-season from Markforged. We just started making parts, but to say we're blown away may be understating it. The parts strength and finish is unbelievable. Parts are incredibly stiff. We're gonna be doing some testing on our 2016 bot in the fall off-seasons and maybe even pushing the limits in some totally new realms that were thought to be 'unprintable' by myself and probably all of the larger FRC community. Pic below of our first part. Nylon base with carbon fiber wound inside each layer. First 4 layers on either side had carbon wrapped concentrically around the contours. The middle 32 layers had isotropic carbon laid down, rotating 90deg each layer



-Brando

So what is this part for? What kind of load do you expect it to see? And if you don't mind me asking, was this printed on a custom Printer, or just custom materials? And how long did this print take?