Our first pre-production units are in and look great! We initially planned on producing a higher quantity in our first production, however, to mitigate risk in our current economic environment, we have decided to start with a lower initial production quantity which will arrive in the first week of January. In doing so, we have incurred a cost increase, which is reflected in our slight price increases.
We are pricing the QAS Quad set at $279 for the FRC purchasing season, which with a base profit margin would be at $310. This will not include the 4 extra tang plates as it would increase the cost even more. After discussions with some teams, we have found that many who would use this for bumper attachments, use reversible bumper covers and the extra tang plates would not be a necessity.
The QAS is a game changing solution for modularization of any system, where you need a robust connection for mounting, while desiring the capability of connecting and disconnecting as needed without using hardware, while having a secondary locking capability. The QAS is also sold in a Duo set. Additional tang plates are available to expand modularization capabilities in various areas of your robot design, as well as carts and transport systems.
Yes - back in 2013, as a veteran, I came up with an idea for military CQC applications, but realized later that the attachment portion of the system had a much broader capability than what I had designed it for. While the first product had market hurdles, I rewrote the patent for a much broader utility application, but dude to the original filing, I had to retain much of the original information and covered all of the current claims in the final patent application. Now with the newly filed transfer of energy patent, the possibilities of applications are almost limitless.
In the image I have highlighted the button. When you engage the tang plate it is locked in place and the release button protrudes from the face by about 6mm.
It’s important to note that once these are mounted, there are absolutely no tools required to connect and disconnect the QAS. Just push the assembly together to engage and push the button(s) to disengage.
The body was is 2.8oz per QAS and the tang plate is .4oz. So for a set of four on a robot you are looking at 12.4oz in total weight. If you are using them for bumpers and you have the bodies on the robot frame you are looking at 11.2oz.
Others are planning to use a couple for a bottom maintenance access plate/shield. Others are planning to use them for modularity in their transport carts. It would be exciting to see some teams follow through on discussions of looking at modularity in game functionality with sub-systems.
Love the product, I think it simplifies many of the custom solutions teams have attempted to make for quick attach/detach bumpers. Would it be possible for teams to access the 3D block CAD model without making purchases? I know several teams have strict purchasing rules, and many (including my own) may have trouble being able to purchase a set without first having a local cad file to show how it could interface with our robot for the administrators who approve purchases. By making the block CAD (somewhat) public, maybe even just for teams that request it for this specific purpose, it could allow for more teams with stricter purchasing rules to acquire a set. If this could be done, I know many of us would appreciate it immensely. Thanks!
Was thinking about that earlier; I checked his CD profile and saw his name was Joe Manly.
So I’m assuming “Manly” is a family name. Or maybe he is just very excited about his latches being strong and got his legal last name changed because of it. I prefer the second option.
What would make this better than using a couple of bolts and inserts for instance? Many, many teams use that as a solution, and it works great. No shade towards your product, but it seems overengineered for a task that doesn’t need that bulk.
I’ve had variations of that question my whole life. It is definitely my name, but I definitely think there is a fit with the strength of the QAS.