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Registered Member #3799
Joined: Thu Mar 31 2011, 01:34PM
Location:
Posts: 1
Hello,
We are a team of engineering students from the University of Louvain, working on a coilgunproject. We are trying to build a tennisball-launcher that is able to shoot a ball over a distance between 0 and 9 meter. A picture is included as attachment.
Some features of our design:
* Our solenoid is made out of 0.8 mm coil wire which is turned around an aluminum tube (diameter 36mm). Between the coil wire and the tube is a thin plastic foil. * The launching tube is placed at an adjustable (positive)angle so gravity will be working against us. * The movable piston (with projectile) which we're planning to suck into the coil in order to propel the tennis ball has a weight of 0.5 kg.
We still have some important questions unanswered:
* First of all: is this project achievable at all :)? Knowing that we cannot use line power, but we do have a car battery of 12V. * Is it better to use a plastic tube instead of an aluminum one. Does this influences the magnetic field a lot? * We already did some calculations, but these are very hypothetical. We don't really know what to expect in terms of force on the movable piston. * Which current/voltage is required to evoke such a force? Can our battery deliver this? * Most coilgun designs make use of capacitors, is this necessary since we do not have to propel the piston out of the tube, we only have to accelerate it to a speed large enough to launch the ball.
We would be very grateful if you could help us with these questions.
Registered Member #1643
Joined: Mon Aug 18 2008, 06:10PM
Location:
Posts: 1039
Well something I never thought of. My only concerns, I don't know much of coil guns though, is if it will have enough kick to get it going as far as you want it to, instead of a short 20-30ft kick. I can't say.
I think though this is a rather fun idea to try...I would at least give it a try to see what happens regardless of what people think on how far it will shoot. I havnt seen it done, so why not try? I'd actually like to take this concept to a different level sometime. Bb gun that used a coilgun style solenoid to shoot the BB...
Registered Member #195
Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 08:27PM
Location: Berkeley, ca.
Posts: 1111
a tenis ball is prety light. A coil launcher has lots of force behind it but what you need is velocity. It's a lot like pumpkin-chukin. if you used a inverter and a set of caps you might be better off. is there some level of safty that you have to conform to?
Registered Member #1451
Joined: Wed Apr 23 2008, 03:48AM
Location: Boulder, Co
Posts: 661
You need to use a plastic tube to wind your coil on as aluminum will severely deform your field due to eddy current losses.
If you make a really beefy coil (thick wire and few turns, say 10) and the plunger is quite heavy, the car battery might work. The only problem is that with a 12V source like that there will be very very large currents needed in order to get much of a force on the projectile. I'd go inverter charged caps and make it almost like a conventional coilgun.
Registered Member #1643
Joined: Mon Aug 18 2008, 06:10PM
Location:
Posts: 1039
Coilgun wise, I will say I'm sure PVC would be fine. I have done wire spools for coiguns, Dont. After X amount of shots, the spool caved in and I had a closed middle.
Do you intend to keep this to a power source driven launcher, or possibly turn it into a capacitor bank coilgun launcher?
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Coil gun tennis ball launcher
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