Quote:
Originally Posted by BOSS
We are looking at ways to speed up our Kicker. We are able to use a Mack valve to propel our ball at great speeds but when we go down to the 1/8th inch NPT and a cv of .32 we believe we will not get the same speed. What ways can we speed this up
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What do you think?
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There are many possible design approaches which avoid the dreaded 1/8" 0.32Cv "pneumatic damper" problem. Just a few are:
1) Use a piston to push a heavily spring-loaded (or surgical-tube-loaded) kicker into armed and latched position, then retract the piston out of the way before releasing the latch to fire.
2) Use lightly loaded surgical tubing (or spring) to return the kicker to latched position, then arm by pre-charging a large bore cylinder with a vented front end*. Release the latch to fire. Once fired, vent the charge to allow the surgical tubing to pull the kicker back into latched position. Re-charge and repeat.
3) Connect lightly-loaded surgical tubing to the kicker in such a direction that it pulls the kicker back into the latched position. Attach doubled-up (tripled up?) surgical tubing
between a piston and the kicker in such a direction that retracting the piston pulls the kicker forward via the tubing. With the piston
extended, the lightly loaded tubing pulls the kicker back into latched position. Once latched, pull the piston back pneumatically to stretch the doubled-up tubing to arm the kicker. Release the latch to fire. Extend the piston to return the kicker to latched position and repeat.
Notes:
method#2 assumes it is legal to leave the cylinder vented (
http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=14218);
...the other two methods avoid this question altogether
method#2 and #3 have the added benefit that the kicker can be stored in the retracted and latched position (no concerns about extending beyond frame perimeter) without any potentially unsafe stored energy, and without the need for extra locking hardware. This should please the inspectors.
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