Answered: Tapeing Gears

[dsivo]

Hi! My team is currently contemplating a number of build ideas and wanted to check if this concept was legal. If we used electrical tape on our gears to increase friction, would this be legal? I’ve been told that this may violate <R15B> as the tape would be a form of gluing. The tape would be cut into a single strip, then a gear would roll over it to cover it’s entire circumference. Thanks for the clarification!

[VEX_GDC]

No, this is not legal, as it is not considered one of the acceptable uses of tape as defined by <R7g>:

g. A small amount of tape may be used for the following purposes:

i. For the sole purpose of securing any connection between the ends of two (2) VEX cables.
ii. For labeling wires and motors.
iii. Teflon tape solely for the purposes of preventing leaks may be used on the threaded portions of pneumatic fittings.
iv. For securing and retaining a VEXnet key to the VEX ARM® Cortex®-based Microcontroller. Using tape in this manner is highly recommended to ensure a robust connection.