drive train

[Ari Allyn-Feuer]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

If you're expecting teams to order now so that you're able to provide these units "early" in the build season, you are not in compliance with the 2006 rules regarding what constitutes a vendor. The rules require that you ship your product no more than five days after receiving an order. Unless the rule changes drastically or you take measure to stock belts, teams cannot use a drive purchased from your team on a competition robot.

Can you explain more about the mechanism your team has in place to comply with FIRST's rules defining what a vendor is?

The lead time has nothing to do with Outback. Breco-Flex, one of three official FIRST suppliers cooperating on this, has a manufacturing lead time of 3 to 4 weeks. We need to have a sense of who's doing this so we can get the first production run from Breco-Flex in their pipeline in time to deliver the system early in the season.

These kind of delays are not an unfamiliar prospect to FIRST teams or any other intercorporate purchasing arrangement, and the rules from 2006 (And, it is safe to assume, 2007) allow for the delays inherent in this kind of thing. Would you say Breco-Flex is not a Vendor?

What we're trying to do is simplify the insane free-for-all of custom ordering from Breco-Flex that goes on. To make it easier for Breco-Flex by using a single size, and to make it easier for the teams by reducing the lead time by keeping the tracks in stock.

Outback is an established manufacturing shop with all the requisite tax numbers, and the delays are the result of a third-party supplier which is an official FIRST supplier. We don't anticipate any rules issues.

Thanks,
Ari.