Quote:
Originally Posted by artdutra04
It's actually against OSHA guidelines to use PVC for any kind of (non-buried) compressed gas use.
And easier way to think of the PVC vs. non PVC debate for air cannons is to compare acrylic to Lexan. We all know that acrylic may work for many uses on our robots, but we one needs to baby it in order to prevent it from cracking and shattering. If they used Lexan on the other hand, they don't have to worry as much about catastrophic shattering. |
The comparison given is very helpful; I was unfamilar with OSHA's PVC use restrictions. ABS is clearly the better choice.
Since MARS can not meet the school's team liability insurance requirement, there are no current plans to remake or publicly use our launcher.
One additional safety consideration we had with our design was preventing someone being shot pointblank or directly, so we mounted it at an approx. 45 degree angle on our 2005 bot and discussed use of a remote enabler that an adult would control.
The launcher was a fun summer building project; liability issues, probably more than the build, have opened eyes about all the stumbling blocks encountered when trying something new.