Quote:
Originally Posted by MysterE
Have you thought about trying constant force springs?
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I briefly thought of the idea of using constant force springs. However, with them you're really not going to benefit too much. The largest one that I have seen while looking around holds a max load of 41 lbs and that results from the amount of deflection that you have. You could design to reach that deflection where greater deflection is negligible in result to generating force. Also, packaging them would be a bit of a pain because of the width of that size spring. (2 in wide)
I would certainly take a look at the surgical tubing that FIRST gave every team in the kit. You'd be surprised at the force to % elongation trends that associate with tubing. There can be a LOT of energy stored in a system from surgical tubing alone.