Team 104's succcessful use of composites

[Gdeaver]

This year, team 104 built a 30" ball grabber arm out of fiberglass pultrusions
and other composites. The arm was tested in battle this weekend at
the Drexel regional. It preformed extremely well, taking severe impacts
and stress with no damage. We saved about 40% in weight over our
calculated weight in aluminum. I did not see any other robot structure
at Drexel that used composites other than plywood. Love that carbon
fiber weave look. Any other team use composites for a major structure
this year? We used 1/8" wall 2" and 1" square box tube fiberglass pulltrustions
5.7 oz plain weave dry carbon, 1/4" chopped cabon fiber, laminating
epoxy and 2lb 2 part expanding foam. After all the posts about team
trying to loose weight and all the bent aluminium I saw this weekend
many teams could benefit from some use of composite materials. Get
your robot off a diet of all metal and give it some fiber. Any coments?