The screws I currently have which I want to use for my team’s robot are these hex screws in the picture. Vex says you can use steel and stainless steel. My screws say they are “Carbon steel” are they still legal because they are still steel?
Yes, they are legal. “Carbon steel” is ordinary steel. They use the word carbon steel for marketing purposes because it sounds neat, and helps differentiate it from stainless steel. But steel is just an alloy of iron with up to 1% carbon (usually 0.2% carbon or less). On the “lawyer side,” Harbor Freight is protecting themselves from liability because most socket head cap screws are alloy steel, grade 8, having a tensile strength of 170,000 PSI or more, while these socket head cap screws are ungraded. They will work fine on a robot, but don’t be using them when you make tools and dies
they are perfectly legal
until the gdc spontaneously decides they are not.
Time to find carbon infused steel screws that are just as light as aluminum and say “carbon steel is just normal steel but companies use it because it sounds cool”.