My team currently intends to use the plastic from the flags and platforms from the 2018-2019 Turning Point season for use in our robot design as custom plastic. The legality of using these has already been discussed in this thread:
I am currently looking for documentation (as per R6) to prove the legality of using those plastics as custom-cut plastic, but the Turning Point game manual only mentions the platforms to be made out of polycarbonate but not the flags:
Is there any other documentation from the Change Up season that could explicitly indicate that the plastic flags are made out of a legal plastic type?
Also, is it even necessary to go through this hassle to find documentation? I think I’m being overly cautious, but I’m not sure how much I need to look into the legality of parts since, from the events I have gone to so far, the inspectors are quite lenient on robot rules. I think that people can reasonably assume that the flags are also made out of polycarbonate (as mentioned in the thread above), but I’m still not sure if all the events I go to will have this sort of attitude. Thanks!
In prior years RECF has confirmed that the plastics used for field elements are legal plastics (cf. this post, for example: What happens to Game and Field element kits after season - #6 by Sidoti). Common sense: there is a reason certain plastics, like plexiglass, are illegal, so why would a shattering plastic be used for field elements?
Historically, we saw a lot of turning point flags as a source of plastic for the next season (tower takeover). Of course, it is not the fact of being a field element that makes it legal (or illegal), but rather that the material is of a legal type and thickness per rule R18…(occasionally some people become confused by the “red box” below rule R6h about using field elements on robots).
R18 A limited amount of custom plastic is allowed. Robots may use custom-made parts cut from certain types of non-shattering plastic. It must be possible to have cut all of the plastic parts on the Robot from a single 12” x 24” sheet, up to 0.070” thick.
Emphasis mine.
While I know for certain that the flags were polycarbonate,
I no longer have access to the Change Up field cad. However, I seem to remember that either the Platform tops or the Flags needed to be changed to a thicker illegal material.
Based on this post, it seems that the flags are legal to use, but the platform tops were not.
If you are uncertain of the Turning Point flags being legal, I would check two things.
1 - They are under that 0.070" thickness
2 - They are non shattering plastic. Test this by bending the plastic while wearing the proper PPE. If the plastic bends, it is likely legal. If it breaks or cracks, it is shattering plastic.
Just to clarify, I was referring to the platforms in Turning Point (as indicated by the image) and I accidentally referred to Change Up instead of Turning Point in my entire post. I’ve yet to measure the platform’s thickness, but I’ll do so when I have the opportunity.
Just for clarification, the Turning Point platforms (NOT to be confused with the Tipping Point platforms) were constructed out of polycarbonate that is thicker than what is legal for use in VRC. The flags however are of legal thickness.
The Turning Point field CAD is available on the corresponding RECF library page:
