The Application and Development of Electropneumatics in Paintball

The Application and Development of Electropneumatics in Paintball

Many underestimate the popularity and competitive nature of paintball. However, it has been documented that nearly eighteen million people actively play the sport, either recreationally or competitively. Game formats can vary from recreational play, to practice, to local and international tournaments. Game play can take form in several different ways. The most common variants of paintball are speedball, woodsball, X-ball, and scenario. All these formats encourage specialized pneumatic markers, and importantly electro pneumatically functioning paintball guns. I believe paintball should be a mainstream sport, and electropneumatics is the technological deciding factor backing paintball’s progression.

Often people are very skeptical about the young and prospering sport falsely deeming it unsafe and promoting violence for youths and adults alike. However, many people are unaware of the benefits of paintball. Paintball develops and encourages excellent teambuilding skills and fundamentals, which are hard to come by in recent times. Not only is paintball the fastest growing extreme sport it is arguably the safest sport one can come across. The number of paintball players per a thousand hurt playing paintball is 0.2. This statistic additionally includes sprains, breaks, cuts, and other related injuries. Volleyball is twelve times more dangerous than paintball; sports like golf, baseball, soccer, and football are even more so dangerous. Injuries at home are two hundred and seventy times more likely to occur than at the paintball field (Paint by Numbers 1). This upkeep of safe practice has only invited safety innovations in paintball guns. progressively more people are accepting paintball as a safe recreational and competitive sport fueling the mindful engineers into advancing the development of products to suit the needs of all players.

With such a vast industry so early in its existence, paintball has given way to refined electropneumatic systems unseen before. This article documents the application and development of electropneumatics in paintball. Purposefully educating those uninformed to the technology behind it, while furthering my own knowledge.

In the tournament scene electropneumatics is the fundamental method to propel paintballs the most efficient and performance intended way. “Pneumatics deals the use of compressed air. Most commonly, compressed air is used to do mechanical work that is to produce motion and to generate forces. Pneumatic improve drives have the task of converting the energy stored in compressed air into motion” (Prede 7). Whereas mechanical markers utilize a spring and hammer to actuate the valve and cycle the bolt assembly, electropneumatic markers depend entirely on the rerouting of air to different locations in the marker. This redirection through milled air channels, valves, and pressure lines is controlled by a electronic solenoid activated by the circuit board and its trigger. start

The most common type of marker is the open bolted system. However, there are several guns that are operate on a close bolt system, these are less popular. There have not been many close bolted designs manufactured and marketed in recent years. One such gun is the autococker which is referred to by many as a dying breed, yet they once dominated the market in the late nineties up until about 2004. In a closed bolt system, the bolt remains forward, sealing the breech until the paintball gun is fired. Then its opened and a new ball is fed into the breech. In an open bolt system the bolt remains open until the gun is fired when it closes chambering the ball then it opens again, for a new ball to fall in place. At one point it was rumored that closed bolts achieved a greater accuracy than open bolt guns (Mills “Where’s” 3). This argument is supported by the fact that some believe the paintball in a open bolt set up is jostled in the fraction of the second before firing since the bolt may open again before the ball actually exits the barrel, an open bolt marker will not be capable of sustaining the same accuracy as a closed bolted paintball gun. However, this argument has been silenced in recent years in which the advancement of paintballs technology has furthered substantially. This hypothesis has been ignored and deemed a myth amongst most respectable paintball techs.

Solenoids are one of the essential operating parts in an electropneumatic paintball gun. A solenoid is a coil of wire around a metallic core, producing a controlled magnetic field; electronic currents can be passed through it for various functions. In essence, the purpose of the solenoid is to form a physical connection between the electronics inside the marker, and the physical movement of the marker's internals (DuBuc “Solenoid” 2). By definition, stated by The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language a solenoid is a cylindrical coil of insulated wire in which an axial magnectic field is established by a flow of electrical current. An assembly, often used as a switch used with liquid or gas controlled by running or stopping an electrical current thus changing the state of the valve (1229). The solenoid will activate a series of pneumatic functions within the gun to fire paintball efficiently. “Most electropneumatic markers use a pneumatic solenoid valve which is in fact an integrated pressure valve controlled by an electromagnet. Markers that don't use a pneumatic valve will utilize a more simple solenoid, which is used to move the component itself, such as a” (DuBuc “Solenoid” 3). Such markers that use sears are generally considered to be low end, many function strictly mechanically.

There are two primary classifications for solenoids, direct acting, and indirect acting solenoids. A directing acting solenoid commonly referred to as a self-actuating solenoid. These designs are much less intricate than an indirect acting solenoid. The designs consist mainly of a solenoid housing, and armature or plunger, the part that is in motion when the solenoid is actuated. These solenoids are used in simple guns, some of which are entry-level markers such as the electronic Tippmann, Electronic Spyder, and Electronic Mag models. One sub-division of direct-acting solenoids is their ability to control pneumatic valves. This is accomplished by connecting the end of the solenoid armature to a small pneumatic valve. This valve is referred to as a spool and is present in all pneumatic solenoids” (DuBuc “Solenoids” 4). Many industries outside of paintball use this type of solenoid, a prime example being the starter solenoid in automotive. “Essentially,