The Beginning
At the end of 2022, one of our beloved seniors, Jake, on his “death” (AKA he’s graduating) bed said that his final wish was to bring back our T-shirt cannon in a new form, which had been taken apart for parts and possibly safety reasons (a 30 year old diving tank is NOT safe to use!). So, we decided to build a new and improved T-shirt cannon for a post-season project!
First, we had to figure out how to store our air in a safe and secure way. After consideration of many different materials (PVC is NOT safe for this stuff!) we decided to call our friends at Unipipe, who kindly donated an air tank and aluminum tube to help store air and shoot the t-shirts.
The first step was assembling the air tank and tube.
First, we had to figure out how to store our air in a safe and secure way. After consideration of many different materials (PVC is NOT safe for this stuff!) we decided to call our friends at Unipipe, who kindly donated an air tank and aluminum tube to help store air and shoot the t-shirts.
The first step was assembling the air tank and tube.
We filled up the tube with a stationary compressor before testing the assembled tube and tank outside:
We also needed a fast acting and powerful solenoid to release the air in the tank extremely quickly. Parker Valves kindly donated a specialized solenoid that was used by another company for specific purposes.
We could then connect our solenoid in between the aluminum pipe and tank to control when the air is released.
Next, we needed a powerful compressor in order to fill up the tank quickly. VIAIR was kindly able to provide us with a 200 psi air compressor.
With this compressor, we could fill up the air tank to its max in a few minutes (way better than the tens of minutes with our old compressor).
Finally, we needed to hook everything up to a power source. Using an extremely powerful compressor like this required a well working and high density battery. RELION, a lithium ion battery company, kindly donated a Lithium Ion battery that was used for boats.
Assembling all the components together on a drivable chassis, we got our final product:
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At the beginning of the 2022-23 School year, we got to present our t-shirt cannon and the robotics team itself at the school Pep Rally. We made some T-shirts to shoot at people.
We got to show off the team as well.
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Special thanks to our sponsors:
Vaya Air
Unipipe
RELION
Parker valves
Vaya Air
Unipipe
RELION
Parker valves
