Paintball Power

PAINTBALL POWER

The aim of this project and paper is to see if propane is really a viable source of propulsion power for a paintball marker that can be used in competition. There have been two main sources of propulsion in paintball for years CO2 or carbon dioxide gas and HPA or high pressured air. The first CO2 was the first gas used in paintball it has been in use since before the sport was actually a sport. CO2 was used to fire the chalk markers which were used to mark cattle and trees which is what sparked the sports invention. These guns were the original paintball markers hence the name markers. CO2 was the main gas from 1983 the year of the sports actual invention until about 6 years later. HPA is high pressure air. HPA is a newer gas to the sport, it has found a lot

of use since it is does not poses some of the adverse qualities as CO2, but it does have some other down falls that will be discussed later on. The basic operation of a paintball marker is fairly simple. Each marker needs a tank that uses either CO2 or HPA gas. The gas may either come in larger tanks, measured in weight, or twelve gram cylinders for CO2 and in tanks that are measured in cubic inches and PSI, or pounds per square inch, for HPA. The tank holds the main source of gas. The tank connects to the marker through an ASA adapter that allows the tank to charge the marker through holes in the adapter. The marker holds the charge until the trigger is pressured and trips the sear releasing the bolt. Pressure can be controlled by either a velocity adjusting screw on the marker or one attached to the tank itself. Now to discuss some of the properties of the gasses relating to their uses. CO2 is a cold gas stored under pressure in liquid form in containers and filled to tanks to a specified weight limit which the tank is rated to hold. CO2 has several ups and downs. CO2 is a fairly cheap gas and tank fills tend to cost very little. CO2 is readily avialable it can be found very easily. Tank fills for CO2 are not hard to find most hardware stores even have them, and basically all fields of play offer many CO2 fill stations. CO2 is safe as long as used properly. Some of the downfalls are that CO2 is affected by the temperature it will expand with the heat and contract with the cold. These contractions and expansions can be bad for a player. Expansions can cause velocity spikes and get a player penalized for high velocity speeds and will also affect his accuracy causing wide shots balls breaking in the barrel or chamber and can cause injury to other players. Contractions can cause a bad drop in pressure that will affect both accuracy of shots and shot distance and can cause ball to get broken in the barrel as can high speeds. CO2 is stored as a liquid in the tank. It being stored as a liquid can cause liquid CO2 to leak into the marker if such equipment as remote lines and expansion chambers. This can cause the marker to operate improperly causing undesired malfunctions. The use of this equipment though can cause some of the adverse problems of CO2 to diminish.

HPA has its own ups and downs as well. HPA is cheap as well around the same price as CO2. HPA is not affected by the temperature as easily as CO2. The variation in temperature is greatly reduced by the used of this gas which is nothing more than pressurized air. HPA does also have is downside. The high pressure of the air means the need for heavier strength enforced tanks which means an increase in weight and a decrease in maneuverability. HPA fills are also