Is Kevlar Honeycomb allowed?

[Capt. Quirk]

How much do you need?

If I were able to sell small amounts Nomex honeycomb or Roahcell #71IG foam and other vacuum bagging supplies would that make it legal for the FRC teams that wish to buy it?

Bill

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Capt. Quirk

How much do you need?

If I were able to sell small amounts Nomex honeycomb or Roahcell #71IG foam and other vacuum bagging supplies would that make it legal for the FRC teams that wish to buy it?

Bill

Do or can you meet the definition of a VENDOR as described in Section 8?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Ok first things first, the rules in section 8.3.5.1 is
The cost of items purchased in bulk or large quantities may be prorated on the basis of the
smallest commonly available unit that satisfies the need for the item.
o Example: A team purchases a 4' x 4' sheet of aluminum, but only uses a piece 10” x 10”
on their ROBOT. The team identifies a source that sells aluminum sheet in 1’ x1’ pieces.
The team may cost their part on the basis of a 1’ x 1’ piece, even though they cut the
piece from a larger bulk purchase. They do not have to account for the entire 4’ x 4’ bulk
purchase item.
So if and only if, the item is available in smaller quantity can you prorate and only based on the smaller quantity price. If you purchased the smallest quantity available then the entire price is listed on the BOM.

Be careful with exotic materials. If they require repairs at competition, and also require special handling during those repairs, you may not be able to make the repairs at competition. Such was the case with composite graphite fiber for ramps last year. If the repairs give off toxic fumes or dust then you cannot expose the public to these dangers and repairs will not be allowed. Even though the material may make it through the approval process using the flow chart at the back of Section 8, the special handling may not.

[Gdeaver]

The materials for wet lay up or vacuum injection composite construction are available from many vendors. Amine epoxy resins are available from many vendors. There are many vendors that sell fiberglass, S2, Kevlar and carbon woven and unidirectional dry cloth. All the materials to do vacuum bagging are available from many vendors to any team. I can order small quantities of core materials, raw honeycomb and corrugated core materials. McMaster sells pultrusions along with several other companies. These materials are available to all teams and can fit into the cost constraints. If any team wants to do wet lay up I can list many, many links to vendors that would be happy to help out a FIRST team do composites. However with prepegs and other manufactured composites that are used in aerospace manufacturing, I can contend that these materials are not available to all teams and with order $ and quantity minimums are not available to all teams. Give me a name of a company that I can order some honey comb material and meet the FIRST guide lines and I'll change my mind. Last year our team wanted to use honey comb material for our ramps. I could not find a source that met the requirements so we used polycarbonate and had weight problems. Would have loved to use this stuff. May be I didn't search hard enough. Find some vendors and prove that it's a valid material.