PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland

[Alekat]

I like your perspective, it's quite refreshing to have someone thinking out of the box from a materials point of view. But what does this have to do with the meal again?

[dtengineering]

While the general public might ooh and ahh over fancy aluminum and composites, the judges at PNW are quite willing to look "outside the box" for intelligent application of materials. Last year we picked up the Xerox Creativity award at PNW, and while having two completely different scoring mechanisms (a multi-tetra "flipper" for the low goals and an arm for the high ones), they also really liked that our arm was fabricated of baltic birch plywood.

We had a demo arm in the pits that we placed on blocks and encouraged the judges to bounce on it... the arm, weighing less than 3 lbs, did not budge... even under the weight of three judges.

Wood -- used properly -- is an amazing material. A solid cylindrical column of wood is stiffer and more resistant to buckling than a solid column of almost any other material of similar mass. What is even more interesting is that in certain construction applications wooden columns can actually have a higher fire resistance rating than unprotected steel columns. In wood the outside will char and serve as insulation, while similar strength steel columns or beams can be heated until they become soft and flexible, collapsing under their own weight. Note that this applies only to thick columns, and UNINSULATED steel...

Oh, yeah... we'll have the baltic birch back again. It is beautiful wood.

Looking forward to a great weekend in Portland... can you guys arrange for more weather like last year's? This rain is getting a bit tedious.

Jason

P.S. Looking for plywood inspiration? Check out the DeHavilland Mosquito... arguably (and no... I'm not looking to start an argument with the Boeing fans... they have good arguments, too) the best bomber of WWII. Pretty much all plywood!