Alright, competitions are around then corner everyone! Make sure That your teams Battery spill kit is ready for competition. Don't rely on other teams for your own teams Safety!! I recommend a first aid kit and a Battery spill kit both in the pits and on your teams robot cart! help keep us all Safe at our competitions !!!!

This is "saw stop" its a safety feature that is pretty ingenious! Basically it will detect if two teeth have electric conduction from, oh idk, a finger! and it will fire a brake into the blade instantly! may destroy the blade and youll need a replacement brake, but thats better than a trip to the ER and missing a finger. Our shop has this and I think every shop and school should have this in their tech departments. Its an incredible feat of engineering and safety!

At the Finger Lakes competition I learned a great many things about safety. A few things I wanted to share.... 1) MSDS is no longer called MSDS... weird right? It is called SDS because it is less broad of a subject. For example, MSDS has the word material in it so wouldn't it include Aluminum and Plastic? However, with SDS it is a bit less broad of a spectrum. It is still perfectly acceptable to call them MSDS because that is a term that is well known, I have decided to label our binder with both MSDS and SDS.

2) Having those rubber floor pads that snap together is a very safe practice. You can run wire under them which eliminates that tripping hazard and they also provide more traction. The extra traction allows for, again, less of a tripping hazard. The mats are also easy to clean and keep the floor of the event cleaner!

3) PRINT MORE THAN ENOUGH COPIES!!! This was a major issue I faced at RIT, I didn't have enough personal health assessments to keep interviewing pit dwellers every hour on the hour. It was a lesson learned for me.

4) Finally, don't let the stress get to you, relax and try your best! Remember, you are surround by your fellow FIRST teams and your friends. Don't ever get discouraged.

I'm very proud of our team. We have shown our commitment to making the work a safer place and it has been recognized by FIRST. Congratulations to the Circuit Stompers. The awards are not the important thing however. It's the fact that we are working towards making robotics and this world a safer place.

Lets continue working towards a safer world! Stomp into safety with us!

Material safety

MSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheets. They are so very important to the safety of us all. They should contain information on what's in a chemical or material, such as contact cement of loctite. You know those things on packages that say stuff like "if ingested contact a poison control center"? That is MSDS and everyone should have those organized and clearly depicted thought text or pictures, or both! Keep all this in mind while you prepare your pits, help us create a safe and secure world around us. Stomp onto safety at our side!

cleaning

a small investment such as a brush and pan or a tiny portable shop vac is beyond worth the cost. Having the ability to clean your pits every time the bot queues is an amazing thing. Clean up any debris and remember to stomp into safety with us!

During all your competitions make sure you have your MSDS sheets with you. Keep them with your battery spill kit so that you dont forget them!