Section 8.3.3 Illegal Gearboxes and Chassis

[Hieb]

Originally Posted by ChrisH

AndyMark products are COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) items. AndyMark meets FIRST's definition of a vendor and their products are available to all teams in a reasonable period. I suppose if there was a run on one or two components they might get backlogged but that is allowed for in the rule too. Purchase of COTS items before Kickoff is allowed and, in the case of raw stock, encouraged. Since you just opened the box it obviously was not modified before Kickoff. If you had so much as drilled a single hole before Kickoff then it would be a "custom fabricated" part and therefore illegal.

Unfortunately, I think you also have to look at whether the part is a COMPONENT or a MECHANISM. I think these would fit in to the category of mechanism, which from my reading must be purchased within the time frame of the build period.

I tried posting a question about a similar situation to the Q&A, but I don't seem to be having much luck with the Q&A fora this year. Hopefully we can get a ruling quickly so the design process can continue.