Pneumatic safety issues

[terry]

Craig just wants a ban on the slugs !

[typhoon_driver]

Lipos are slightly different as they are to some degree an unknown quantity and we just have to know how to deal with them

Not meaning to sidetrack but this is garbage. Been running lipos in featherweights for years now without incident and anyone that tells me that a heavyweight experiences a more intense environment these days has not attended a featherweight champs in a long time. Those featherweight spinners are far more dangerous to a lipo pack than anything that a heavyweight has these days.

Rant over

[razerdave]

Amen Gary

The only honest pneumatic failiure I have ever seen (Personally) is someones (I think Skink's) CO2 bottle being overfilled and when it was sat on the bench, somethign at the top gave out and it spun like a catherine wheel on the table.

I have seen other pneumatic failiures on RW like Spawn again blowing its ram.

[widow_twanky]

Lipos are slightly different as they are to some degree an unknown quantity and we just have to know how to deal with them

Not meaning to sidetrack but this is garbage. Been running lipos in featherweights for years now without incident and anyone that tells me that a heavyweight experiences a more intense environment these days has not attended a featherweight champs in a long time. Those featherweight spinners are far more dangerous to a lipo pack than anything that a heavyweight has these days.

Rant over

Eeerm?? OK, not what I was saying and not what i believe it said and nowhere near the point i was making but OK!

[Gasbot]

Just out of interest has anyone seen the build rules for Battlebots? Clicky Section seven makes for an interesting read.

I haven't been to battle bots, although we did get our current design pre-approved many years ago (via design drawings, thickness calcs and the like). Their rules are much stricter than the current FRA rules, especially concerning custom components. Not trying to be sarcastic or pick a fight but their rules didn't seem to have limited innovation etc in any way. Granted I think HPA is/was used in preference to CO2 though but the principal is the same.

Anybody with a lathe can make a ram or buffer tank etc, and there lies the problem. I don't really know of any other way of arriving at a suitable wall thickness from a pressure point of view other than by some form of design calculations, be it calculated by software or done by hand - and I am not pointing fingers here.

In terms of enforcement of the rules, thats going to be a tricky one. If calcs & design verification were to be required for custom components then the person reviewing them will need suitable knowledge to make a valid decision - and that could be a rather steep learning curve for somebody. If left as is and checks are not carried out etc, eventually someone will push the boundaries to the absolute limit and something may well go pop, this could happen in the arena or while arming up, or at home. Or it may never happen - and I hope that this is the case.

[mightymouse]

Tried to stay out of this conversation but finally given in.....

If you work on the theory that having the knowledge to actually make your own ram and fittings etc. you will have a pretty good knowledge of what is likely to blow up in your face. You cannot make rams with a file and a hacksaw, you need specialist machinery which very few of us in the community have access to.

Tom, your ram is a work of art and it does not take a peice of paper to figure out it is more than capable of taking much more pressure than it is ever going to get from a CO2 bottle. Why can we not use our common sense here? There are enough roboteers at any event who can discuss if a dodgy setup is safe before it ever sees the arena, I have been asked many times by tech checkers to concur if they are not happy in the past, and am sure it will continue.

We work to pressures that are not covered by any commercial product, so have to accept that we are living in a grey area.

Dinner time rant over......

Trevor

[Mouldy]

Tried to stay out of this conversation but finally given in.....

If you work on the theory that having the knowledge to actually make your own ram and fittings etc. you will have a pretty good knowledge of what is likely to blow up in your face. You cannot make rams with a file and a hacksaw, you need specialist machinery which very few of us in the community have access to.
Trevor

Spot on.

[Gasbot]

We work to pressures that are not covered by any commercial product, so have to accept that we are living in a grey area.

This isn't a grey area - I work with this kind of stuff nearly every day!

Edited cos whats the point. At least I don't need bother getting a new hydro test now.

[Max]

On a different but not unrelated topic, if u want to pressure test a low pressure (10 bar) ram and buffer tank can I just connect it to a compressor an test them up to 15 bar? I would put it in a box or behind a wall or something to protect my self but is that enough?
Does someone have to sign it off (I can't see anyone saying it will be fine in the environment we use it in and open themselves up o a lawsuit if it failed and injured someone). Does this person have to be qualified or just anybody?

[kane]

9.7.1 Custom Components
Custom made components, or parts operating above the suppliers maximum working pressure, must be
independently tested and certified at 120% of the maximum system pressure available at that point.