Are teams allowed to weld their robot together?
yes
Yes sir. 340 has been doing it for years. I learned to weld here and I love it.
As everyone else said, yes.
The only word of caution that should be added is that if you break a weld (say on your frame) at a competition, you CAN NOT fix that weld in your pit area, but have to bring it to the FIRST approved machine shop at the event which may or may not be full from other teams using it.
Just something to think about.
We had a welded chassis last year and loved it. One thing we did do was figure out how to fix a broken joint without welding in case it happened. It never did (not even when we were knocked off a high ramp) but what we came up with was bringing some oversized square tubing (our chassis was made of 1x1 square aluminum tubing) that could be quickly cut and bolted across the broken area. We did a quick practice run (on some spare tubing) and it only took us about 10 minutes to cut the big tubing to the right size, drill holes and put in bolts. If you want to do something like this remember to make the size of your robot a little bit less and 28" x 38" so you won’t break the size rules.
Just lay down good welds. Then it won’t happen. 
And if you break a weld at FLR or Championship, Just call me (Ross Temple) down, and I’ll fix er’ up for you. Assuming I’m not driving 
As a rule of thumb, we (395) never weld. First of all, we don’t have the facilities, tools, or training to do it, and we are also afraid of breaking a weld and being unable to repair it in time. We’re much more fond of cutting notches in the chassis and bolting the thing together using pressed nylon inserts.
1675 builds their robot in a welding shop!
(Well, metal-fab shop.)
We weld a lot of stuff. And yes, last year we had a weld break in atlanta. Did you see the pic in the kickoff intro with the kid yelling and grabbing at the driver’s station wall? Yeah, a professional photographer snapped a shot of his face as the 'bot was falling over.
Everything got fixed before our next match, though
I don’t know how to weld though, I’m a programmer!
our team: Laser Robotics Team 2077 has a sponsorship with the amazing local company Generac. They make all of our parts in aluminum. therefore we never have to weld.
welding works fine if you know how to do it right, just have spares
remember for aluminum go fast and hot (im assuming your using aluminum for weight purposes)
Welding is a great way to build a robot frame. Very strong and lightweight. You would be amazed at the pounds you can save by eliminating all the fasteners and joining hardware. However, an FRC robot frame should really be TIG welded by an experienced professional. Also, issues can arise such as heat affected zones, and warping. If done properly, welds should not break, however you should have a plan to fix it by bolting/etc if you do happen to break one at competition.
People have broken welds? not the metal?
Team 1501 will have a welded Chrome Moly frame again this year.
if your doing aluminium make sure you have someone experianced welding it…if not youll waste alot of time and material maby even a TIG
We weld a lot of aluminum, and do not profess to be pros.We had a weld break at Detroit last year, but had a spare part. the usual failure is due to heat effected zones loosing their heat treat and using thin section, there is a lot of fatigue cracks (and yes some breaks) in the post season. If you use 6061 T6 and do not post heat treat forget the T6 portion when doing your strength calcs and assume you have annealed 6061. I.E. 40KSI aluminum becomes 8KSI aluminum.
If you don’t have a good welder (both machine and person running it), stick to other joint methods. There are a lot of great teams that avoid welding. If you have a good welder (both machine and person) You can do some amazing weight saving. Make sure you make spares of high impact parts because the loads they take may shock you.
We had welded chassis for 2005 and 2006. Last year we machined one and bolted it togther, much better IMO. We’re doing the same this year. We don’t have the resources to weld ourselves, so it needs to be sent out to one of our sponsors. Needless to say this takes up time and miscommunications could happen along the way. Plus like other people said a broken weld could be game over for your robot. Bolting things together might not be as strong, but if you break a bolt or something, you can just put another one in.
Plus we try to have as much, if not all, work done by us in our shop(s). It just gives us complete control of what gets done with the robot. We all have communication with each other during the build process incase we need to make last minute changes for whatever reason.
Indeed it is, it’s a great way to lighten a bot, since you can remove all of the bolts and nuts. If you have any questions on welding hit me up. I’m team 145’s welder.
I would like to dispell some myths about welding. Yes, welding can ruin your frame if you give it too much heat. By causing it to warp or bend. This is not a huge problem if you know what your doing, but you will get some warpage, but it can be fixed. I have never a good weld break on me. Most of the time the metal will break before then weld will. I have had only had 2 small welds break, they where cold, weak welds. TIG welding can be slow and frustrating, but it’s a great way to build a robot. NO, you do not need to be a pro welder, while I am and experienced welder and have taken classes at school, I am not certified or anything.