kicker

[terryo]

Originally Posted by rytcd

hey, would a pneumatic pendulum style kicker be more powerful than a straight horizontal pneumatic punch? also, might it be better to use a kicker with a smaller surface area?

HI- we are using the pneumatic pendulum-with-surgical tubing spring assist, and it's working very well. The cylinder extends the spring, and then releasing the air lets the spring pull the pendulum forward to kick the ball.

It took a bunch of testing to get the spring force vs. exhaust flow correct on the cylinder- we had to use (3) valves in parallel coupled to a manifold on the cylinder in order to evacuate the cylinder quickly to take get good speed from the surgical tubing to kick over the bump. The other end of the cylinder has no fitting and vents to atmosphere.

The interesting side effect is that we are able to fire the valves 1 or 2 or 3 at a time in order to control the kick distance (scoring, passing, or over the bump). Now it's up to the drivers to remember which button to push!

Good luck!