Full pressure flippers

does anyone know the easiest way to
get a ram to operate on full pressure for h/w
robot similar to the likes of kronic,turbulence
where the rod of the ram does not connect to the flipper, Its a bit much for me to try and pull
cylinders apart and remachine ends etc Id probably blow it all up !!
There must also be robots that use normal cylinders moded for the full pressure that are connected to the flipper like a vdma 16bar,
would this be easier to do ??
valves and pipes are no probs and my buffer will
be a 2kg bottle.
Cheers
Terry.

Do not use standard pneumatic cylinders/rams at full pressure. Even one rated at 16 bar is a long way short for running at up to 70 bar.

Almost all the guys running full-pressure flippers are using custom made rams, not modified pneumatic rams. The only other alternative is using a hydraulic ram.

Ours is custom built from a solid bar of amuminium. The old one we used was a hydraulic ram, that might be the best way to go.

maybe I will just get a hydraulic ram it will be easier, I saw a nice one on a forklift truck yesterday !!
wonder if they would miss it !
It looked like 60 bore and 160 travel (ish)
dave how does kronic retract, does the weight of the flipper arm bring it back in or is it co2 ?
what valves do you use for full pressure I
thought technobots had some 70 bar well they might have only been 50 bar but they dont have any know, do you have to use valves intended for higher than 70 bar so they are safer ??

Terry most people use bungee cord to help pull the flipper ar down, Kronic, Turbulence and Merlin all do.

The valve about all FP users use is the Burkert 5404.

And to compare, most FP users in heavies are using the Gravity ram as a yardstick. 100mm bore and 180mm stroke, fed by 2 Burkerts trough a buffertank,and 1 Burkert for exhaust.

Beast uses a hydralic ram 55 tons it weighed 25kg ram only then i machined it down to about 12kg it also has a spring inside which pulls ram back down, well that was the past i have a Mario ram now and will have to make sure the bungy brings ram back down, new ram = about 5 kg

Terry we have a 58mm bore in our feather weight

Jaksa were I believe the re-branded valves available thru Technobots.

http://www.jaksa.si/English/group04.htmlhttp://www.jaksa.si/English/group04.html

Number 2 in the group being the equiv of a Bukert 5404.

Both the U.K. companys below list these valves.

http://www.alphacontrols.co.uk/alpha.products.solenoid.html#jaksahttp://www.alphacontrols.co.uk/alpha...oid.html#jaksa

http://www.betavalve.com/piston.asphttp://www.betavalve.com/piston.asp

(Message edited by woody on April 19, 2008)

Having bought valves from both of these companies in the past, only one of them at the time were agents for Jaksa but I cannot remember which one. The other supplier supplied a valve that did not have quite the same build quality. For the price though, a good alternative to Burkerts which were always over priced in my opinion.

Both valve brands work great. We used to have a couple of those Alpha branded valves and they do have a couple of advantages over the Burkert.

For one, they are lighter than the Burkert which for a feather can be a serious consideration. Secondly, the internals are a bit less complex, making them less vunarable to swarf. All valves are vunerable to swarf, but so far the Alpha seem to be a little bit more forgiving.

We mainly use Burkerts in Holland because they are easier for us to get hold of. But weve had good experiences with the Alpha/Jaksa valves as well.