Screen Door Piston

[ND4SPDLSC]

Hello,

My team is wondering if the pneumatic pistons on screen doors in homes is legal for FIRST use. Thanks for the help!

Nick

[ZZII 527]

if you're kidding.

If your serious...I suppose so. It would make a good "keep-our-huge-arm-from-coming-down-to-quickly" device.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by ND4SPDLSC

Hello,

My team is wondering if the pneumatic pistons on screen doors in homes is legal for FIRST use. Thanks for the help!

Nick

Typically, these are not pneumatic pistons at all, but gas springs or dashpots.

Were they pneumatic pistons, they would not be legal. As gas springs or dashpots, however, they are legal and, in addition to being on your door, are available through catalogs such as MSC Direct or McMaster-Carr.

They work well for providing a counter-force for mechanisms on our robots.

[Jay H 237]

What's also good about these pistons is that most, if not all, usually have a small screw for adjusting the damping force of the piston. This is good if you have it attached to your robot arm for instance you can adjust the cushining effect depending on the weight of your arm.

[jacob_dilles]

we just got a small FIRST pnumatic piston and hooked it into our system with a regulor and a needle valve and it works fine. we were gonna go gas-shock but its tooo heavy

[Joe Ross]

keep in mind this ruling on Q/A:

ID: 414 Section: 5.3 Status: Answered Date Answered: 1/27/2004
Q: Would a door-closer limit device such as those found at http://builders-hardware.aubuchonhar...oor_closer.asp be considered legal to use on the robot?
A: If it operates hydraulically, or employs a piston displacing air in a cylinder, it is not permitted.

[Stephen Kowski]

what joe says is correct, but if you use something like a gas shock (they have them @ pep boys I believe) they displace no air and are legal....

ID: 678 Section: 5.2.9 Status: Answered Date Answered: 2/12/2004
Q: We wish to purchase and use nitrogen-filled shock absorbers from the local Pep Boys store. They are called "Sachs Stabilus gas-charged lift-support", functioning effectively as springs (no air enters or leaves the pistons). May we?

A: Yes, they can be used. For the purposes of the FRC competition, gas shocks are not considered pneumatics.