[EricH]

Originally Posted by neilpatel92

Our team was planning on using a high speed pneumatic gun to hit the soccer balls with enough velocity so they would go over the ramp.

...

Is there any way that we can prevent damage on these pistons, and slow the pistons at certain points during the shot to prevent damage? Is there any way to prevent damage completely?

Or should we just scrap the idea of a pneumatic gun?

_Neil

Don't go fully pneumatic. Use the cylinder to swing a kicker bar.

Let r be a radius, L be a linear speed, and w be a rotational speed (technically it should be lower-case omega, but w is close).

L = r*w. Let's say that you can get a linear speed of 5 units/second out of the cylinder. You attach it close to a pivot of a kicker (let's say 5 units away from the pivot).

w is now L/r, in this case 1 radian/second.

The other end is supposed to be traveling at 20 linear units/second, let's say.

20 = r*1. You need a 20-unit long kicking device.

Do you see what I'm getting at here? Use a swinging arm and design the placement carefully, and you can get the same effect as a pneumatic cylinder going straight in at much higher speeds.