Gas charged hood lifts: are they legal in 2016

[Chris Fultz]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

This is basically totally irrelevant for FRC, where a gas spring might see 500 cycles on a very thoroughly driven competition robot depending on the application. You generally don't have to worry about wear on a gas spring in an FRC context, which is nice.

The reason for the rod-down orientation is to keep the seal lubricated. Gas shocks have a small level of oil inside to keep the seal between the rod and case lubricated so it will not leak, and lose force.

[MrForbes]

I wonder why folks keep calling the gas springs we are talking about, by the name "gas shocks"?

strange.

[orangemoore]

Is possible to exceed the recommended Cycle per minute value? Would this damage the them or would the life span be shortened?

[GeeTwo]

I don't know for sure, but given the general behavior of gas springs, it doesn't seem likely you'll be able to run them much faster than a few cycles per minute without using greater forces than they're designed to handle. All of the ones I'm familiar with have internal flow control valves that limit the rate of motion, especially in the extension direction.

If you want to be able to extend/contract quickly, you should consider switching to regular (steel helical) springs, probably compressional. Perhaps a storm door spring could work (wrong direction).