This is probably a weird question after so many iterations of duct tape jokes and what not, but is duct tape or packing tape allowed to like say hold a piece of foam on the robot this year? I looked in the rules and there is no mention of this being legal or not. Thanks in advance
Seems reasonable to me…maybe Al can chime in
Duct tape is legal this year and has been for the past several. It’s even legal on bumpers after quite a bit of controversy throughout the build season haha.
Prohibitions against tape were removed several years ago. Back at the time, the GDC urged teams not to go hog-wild with the tape and make ugly robots, else they would feel compelled to reinstate the ban in future years.
It’s legal inside bumpers to hold the noodles on the backing board. It’s not legal on the outside…
Freddy, if you want something spiffier than the regular old gray duct tape, I think David still has some of the pink Hello Kitty stuff. 
Duct tape is legal. My team had to use some to keep the transmission on our intake together… we also used duct tape in means so that we don’t have to powder-coat our robot… ::ouch::
I recommend Gorilla Tape much more than the usual duct tape. It’s stronger, stickier, and nicer-looking (usually). For stuff where you want to ever remove it, you’ll prefer gaffer’s tape. It’s the stuff they use to put the lines on the fields, and is pretty easy to work with.
Exactly correct. Sorry I said that in a confusing way.
Duct tape is not specifically banned for use on FRC robots but…
- It is not a fastener.
- It is not an insulator (in some cases, but not predictable even in the same manufacturer)
- It is ugly.
I have SpongeBob duct tape
DON’T BUILD YOUR ROBOT OUT OF DUCT TAPE UNLESS YOU WANT IT TO BREAK BETWEEN EACH MATCH! 
My team has used it on the outside of our bumpers and the refs never said anything about it
A couple of comments on this:
- Duct tape (or gaffers’ tape) is legal, for repairs at least.
- If you’re using it for numbers, and the numbers come off, someone really needs to talk to you–risk of non-compliance with G26.
- If you had it at inspection, the inspectors, NOT the refs, could have told you whether or not it was illegal. (Just ask–most inspectors won’t bite you for asking if something is or is not illegal.)
- Just because the refs don’t say anything doesn’t mean it’s legal. It may in fact mean that they don’t care about that particular infraction, if there is one. But at your next event, the refs might have a little more time to care… and now you’re not legal.
One more thing: “It passed at [previous event]!” is not a valid excuse.
Legal, but my team banned it internally after last year anyway.
Never before have I seen a robot look so bad, so quickly…
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Well the amount of Duct Tape on this robot was crazy… most of the pneumatics… shooter… loader(100%duct tape/polycarb)… climber…
but hey, it worked
Gaffer’s tape is legal for repairs; it is cloth. Duct (or Duck) tape isn’t cloth, and therefore not legal. Our LRI had huge rolls of blue, red, and white gaffer’s tape ready for use; hopefully your LRI does the same.
We had a number of rookies at GKC that didn’t have good numbers. White gaffer’s tape with a layer of clear packing tape was allowed, but the teams all got a nice conversation with the inspectors about what they need to do next year. Coming in with numbers constructed out of tape won’t be one of the options…
As I keep telling teams, we inspectors are the nice guys. It’s the refs that are evil and are out to get them. :yikes:
Yep. I always see a lot of bumper violations that never get called. Giving the refs the benefit of the doubt, I’m assuming that they have more important fouls to look for. But pretty much every tournament I’ve inspected I’ve seen refs ask us to look at one or more robots & confirm that they’re legal; such requests have included bumpers. And there was at least one bumper violation called at GKC (and remember, G20 calls for the robot to be disabled). So maybe they do care.
At IE, we hit the bumper calls HARD… on practice day. (Half the ref crew was also inspectors.) So, if we saw someone come out with bad bumpers and a valid inspection tag, they’d get sent back for a reinspection.
By elims, though, most of the issues were either gone… or too far gone for a flag to be of any use. (To the team with large zip-ties holding their bumpers/bumper fabric on: You were noticed, but I at least figured that your mounts had completely broken, and you were using a temporary setup to compete in one match while you fixed 'em.) If bumpers were pretty shredded, yeah, we called 'em.
We’ve used a lot of (zebra!) duct tape, but never to hold our robot together. It has proved very useful when turning sharp corners into dull ones though (to make sure we never accidentally cut/scratch the ball).