WBCs ram has never failed.
The only thing that failed was the knuckle joint where it attaches to the flipper. Nothing came off, the flipper stayed attached by its massive reinforced hinges as it was designed to do.
The ram stayed intact, the full pressure gas charge stayed in it and vented correctly as soon as I released the transmitter €œflip up€ button.

The knuckle joint has been replaced by a stronger one.

If people want to make a fuss about a piece of metal failing on a robot then we must all give up building robots now.

For those of you who keep pointing out WBCs €œterrible€ ram failure and assume I am ignorant about ram design and use, I used to design and use them for the aircraft, offshore oil and submarine industries.
I have also used 50,000 psi hydraulics, 6000 psi gas and liquid oxygen military aircraft and professional diving systems, as part of my normal daily work.
I do know about HP gas and fluid systems. It was a requirement for the job.


I did all the calculations concerning the strength of the cylinder wall and other parts, rod, seals, retaining bolts, flow rates, energy and safety margins.
The energy calculations were confirmed as accurate by a professor of applied mathematics using data taken from WBC flipping Axe Awe in RW series 5.
I was 2% out on the energy calculation, everything else, force, speed and acceleration was spot on.

WBCs ram has adjustable dynamic gas cushions at both ends to decelerate it, and its load, well within the safety limits of the materials it is made from.
They are not just bits of rubber or springs as I have seen on several other robot flippers.
These are regularly inspected and serviced as is the whole ram and gas valves.
The person most likely to get hurt if WBCs ram goes wrong is me, when I am testing it in my workshop, so you can see I have a particular interest in its integrity.

The general attitude seems to be to €œnit pick€ at peoples work and highlight their failures without knowing much about them or the failure itself.

If we all made robots that never broke we would be making boring dinky toys.

Robots do fail and fall apart, that is what makes the entertaining.
If they never broke then every battle would end in a draw after five minutes.

It is only when they nearly hurt people that we must question their design.

When they fly apart in the RW fight box they are doing exactly what the RW producers wanted them to do.

WBC and most of the top robots were designed to work specifically within the RW bullet proof fight box.
That was designed to contain them whatever failed, or was smashed, and always has.
WBC has rarely been used in public outside of RW and only when I considered it safe to do so.
I withdrew during one event as I considered its arena unsafe to use.
I have not gone to many more for the same reason.

Nothing has ever flown off WBC or hurt anyone so I have judged it right so far.

WBC is now retired from active service because I am fed up with the whimpering of those who are afraid of it.

Christian Fredriksson lecturing me about the difference between static and dynamic force in a hammer is just the sort of un-called for sniping that I am getting fed up with.
Its often called €œteaching your Granny to suck eggs€.
In my workshop I would tell him where to go in no uncertain terms, but this is a public forum.

I even had a telephone complaint that a WBC pull back toy hurt some little boy€™s finger when he fired its flipper.

All machines with moving parts eventually break and those like robots, which are pushed to their limits, generally break the soonest.
If you want an example of the worlds finest machines too often going wrong and bits falling off then just look at F1 motor racing.
If they, with their multi million pound budgets, can€™t get it right then it€™s a bit much to expect robot designers to.
Plenty of people watch F1, many of them just to see them crashing. As soon as they make them super safe their audience will get bored and stop watching.

Those who €œcry wolf€ every time something breaks on a robot are just showing their ignorance and fear of things mechanical.

We must be safe and not hurt anyone, but for heavens sake stop your boring niggling complaints and get on with the real safety issues.

If you keep sniping at people they will get fed up with you and just give up on RW.