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Barry's Coilguns |
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Mark 3
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Barry's Coilgun Mark III
GoalsThe biggest obstacle for practical coilguns is their apalling inefficiency. Hobbyists report typically 1% - 3% of their stored energy is converted into kinetic energy. This is horrible! Modern rotary motors are 80% efficient or better, due to a highly refined magnetic flux path. We should be looking at this area to improve coilguns. Until now, the only solution has been ever-larger, higher-voltage and more expensive power supplies. Some people have tried multiple stages but it requires many additional parts for detection and triggering. Instead of more stages, I will continue to study improvements to a single stage coilgun. My third model, the Mark III, wraps the coil in laminated iron. The iron lends its magnetism to the overall field, while the laminations help avoid eddy currents. MechanicalThe coil geometry is largely determined by the shape of the laminated iron. I used a core from an old 110v primary / 24v secondary transformer. I discarded its coil bobbin and wire, and wound a coil to fit its gap:
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Last Update 2013-05-04
©1998-2023 Barry Hansen |