Help with T-Shirt Cannon

[Steven Smith]

Originally Posted by KohKohPuffs

Since a discussion on T-shirt cannon designs has been brought up, I thought I might ask this: as opposed to a pneumatic approach to the firing of the t-shirt, has anyone ever thought of using flywheels?

I had this idea an year ago, but people had concerns over shredding by the flywheels although I'm partially convinced that such a design might be better and perhaps more safer than these pneumatic t-shirt cannons that we usually see being made.

Interesting thought, always worth trying out Maybe a team with a test rig for this year could alter the spacing and give it a whirl.

My gut says for most wheel/shirt combinations that there isn't enough compressibility/springback for it to work well and you might impact more energy shearing the layers of the T-shirt vs. each other versus propelling the mass. But... just intuition, and still would like to see someone try.

Another plus for many basic pneumatic cannon designs is being able to load by just shoving the shirt down the tube, versus having to work out a load from the back side, a way to advance the shirt into the wheels, etc.

I do think there is a potential for issues with pneumatic launchers, but having a reasonably safe design out there could probably benefit a number of teams... might add that to my offseason todo list...