Engineering Challenge- Spring Loaded Kicker Edition

[Ether]

To kick further you need more energy stored in the kicking energy storage mechanism i.e. the spring. The motor is the only method available to add the extra energy required. I assume that this is not the first kick which can have lots of stored energy due to preloading the spring in the pits but rather a subsequent kick relying only on the motor to reload the spring with energy.

"Pre-loading" the spring, in the context in which that phrase was used in earlier posts in this thread, means that the spring force is not zero at the end of the kick. For example, suppose the "spring" is four 20" parallel pieces of latex tubing. Reduce the spring rate by getting rid of 2 pieces, and cut the remaining 2 pieces down to 12" to pre-load them. Please look at the graphs in earlier posts.

If the force is limited to Fmax (stalled motor) the only way to increase stored energy is to extend the distance X (amount spring is compressed or stretched) which is accomplished by decreasing the spring constant.

No, extending the distance is not the only way to get more stored energy. You can get more stored energy with the same distance by using a weaker spring and pre-loading it (see definition of "pre-load" above) to a higher value. This is illustrated graphically in earlier posts.



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