electro magnet flipper

**swanaldo** · 14th June 2013, 09:25

I wonder if something like this could work??

**PJ-27** · 14th June 2013, 09:50

I looked into this in the previous bout of BW enthusiasm. I think Tom Armitage even tried it out?

**swanaldo** · 14th June 2013, 10:03

I believe at that size there wont be that much power and will struggle to flip 1.5kg...2 of em will probably do it...but...if you did an Envy style front hinge then the weight to flip is drastically reduced. I think it could work. I will try it when i have the arena done. I have a big sheet of 1.2mm Ti to build something very light weight so the electro magnet size can be increased.

**Eventorizon** · 14th June 2013, 10:12

The Big Nipper guys did an electric flipper with a massive solenoid back in 2012 with LF3. Part of it caught fire but it worked fine up til then. Ask them how they did it.

**Max** · 14th June 2013, 10:28

Maybe use something like this:

A kind of rail gun idea. I imagine it produces a force all the way along the stroke. I am imagining something more like the first test in the video rather then the second!

**Bacon Wizard** · 14th June 2013, 11:23

They work, but even the military are struggling to make it efficient.

The sheer amount of power you need in the first place is one problem (and batteries remain the thing which is holding-up many new technologies at the moment) but the real bugger is the size and weight of the components.

It takes a good couple of kilos in parts to make something that has the power of an air-pistol.

Give us carbon nano-tube batteries and hyper-capacitors, room temperature superconductors etc, and we'll see this become practical. Until then, it remains sci-fi waiting to happen. It's why the Large Hadron Collider is large.

And that's coming from your resident optimistic dreamer (me) Sorry

**PJ-27** · 14th June 2013, 11:36

I did a ton of research into Solenoids in 2012 (talked about it on here) with the intention (initially) to do a FW. But then when the BN guys tried it I stopped.
Never fully explored BWs though.

**Bacon Wizard** · 14th June 2013, 11:37

If you got the same technology, but made your projectile spin on its axis instead of linear motion, then you'd need fewer coils and magnets with the opportunity to wind the coils very efficiently. Then you could just harness the rotary motion. That would be a lot more efficient. Take your research in that direction for best results...