pic: Team IFI

[ChuckDickerson]

Team IFI is impressive by any measure. What sort of support does IFI provide to the sponsored teams? I spent a few minutes in Team 2056 pit in Atlanta on Saturday morning looking closely at their machine in awe of the beautiful orange polycord conveyor system. I noticed some very nice gusset brackets and asked if the team made them themselves and was told they got them from their sponsor IFI. I asked if they were a standard part or if they were custom designed for them. The students thought they were standard IFI parts and said they thought they were available on the IFI website. I have looked at IFIRobotics.com but don’t see them.

Here are pictures of the gussets I’m talking about:






Does anyone know if these are standard IFI parts or if IFI will or plans to sell them?

I ask because they look like they would work perfectly with the ever popular 80/20 10 Series T-Slot but may be a lighter and less costly solution than similar 80/20 brand parts. 80/20 10-Series T-Slot extrusion itself isn’t terribly expensive but 80/20 is very proud of their connector plates or so it seems to me. Teams can make their own but without the proper equipment homemade brackets aren’t always as precisely made. I think it would be pretty awesome if IFI would come out with some standard stamped/punched angle brackets and gussets similar to these that would be compatible with the 80/20 10 Series T-Slot at a reasonable price for teams that don’t have the equipment to manufacture them as nicely in house.

IFI, are these beautiful brackets on the 2056 machine a hint of great new thing to come from IFI?

[2056Durfey]

This year our entire frame was designed by Tyler Holtzman and was sent to IFI to be punched out. So to my knowledge they are custom parts that we had made for us this year.

We also build two robots each year so we can practice after ship. We didn't do this our first year do to lack of resources, but it has helped us immensely during the last two seasons to develop new strategies and get a feel for the robot and that years game.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by DeepWater

Does anyone know if these are standard IFI parts or if IFI will or plans to sell them?

Sponsors are considered to be part of your team, and can make custom parts for you, although you have to report the cost of raw matierals in your BOM.

Apparently IFI has some nice sheet metal equipment! The robot parts that come from them are beautiful.