Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankJ
In either case you are far more likely to pretzel the rod than to rupture the cylinder.
|
To wit, here's the response from Bansbach I received today. The short answer is in most types the lock will fail before the cylinder, and a safety overload release can be specified:
In general terms the following describes the different locking springs
For K locking gas springs, if you exceed the locking force in compression, the valve will open and the gas spring will compress. Please note however that the valve will close back up if the force is removed and the spring will lock again.
For P locking, the same applies as the K locking but in the reverse directions. In this case, exceeding locking force in extension results in the valve opening
Please note however that in both cases, overloading the gas spring degrades the sealing mechanism of the spring and you may eventually have a failure where the unit no longer locks.
For KX locking, the force listed is the maximum force in both directions based on the material strength of the locking components. We advise you never exceed or plan to exceed the listed locking force in any of the gas springs as listed in our catalog.
Locking gas springs are not meant to function as shock absorbers.
If you need a gas spring that has a safety overload we can actually provide that as an integral part of the spring. We refer to this type of gas spring as a V-variation of the locking springs. For example, we can have a spring whose regular locking force is 1000N and if exceed will allow movement until the force drops back down.
As suggested, I will write an appeal sometime this summer and send it to FIRST HQ. In the meantime we'll unfortunately abandon this approach to modifying our robot for off-season events.