Answered: Legality of Nylon Spacers sized for High Strength Axles?

[OscarMNOVA12]

Hi, had a question about Spacer usage for high strength axles.

I know currently there are the Acetal Spacers made for High Strength Axles. We’ve had some troubles with a few of them before so we drill out the nylon spacers to accommodate the size of the high strength axle. Would it be legal to use commercially available nylon spacers that are the right size for a high strength axle?

[VEX_GDC]

Yes, this is legal, under very specific conditions and provided no additional rules are violated in the process. Rule R7b states the following:

<R7> Robots are allowed the following additional “non-VEX” components:

b. Any parts which are identical to legal VEX parts. For the purposes of this rule, products which are identical in all ways except for color are permissible. Note: It is up to inspectors to determine whether a component is “identical” to an official VEX component.

For this commercially available spacer to be considered a legal replacement, it must be identical to VEX nylon spacers (i.e. those found in 275-1066) in terms of material type, outer diameter, and length (i.e. no longer than the maximum length of a legal VEX nylon spacer). It must have an inner diameter that is larger than the VEX spacer’s inner diameter (i.e. it could have been drilled from a legal part).

For the VRC In the Zone season, this exception to R7b will only apply to spacers in the application you have described. However, we will consider officially expanding this consideration in the manual for future years.