SITE Manufacturing (Redding, Calif.) has taken information attained during more than 23 years of fabricating hi-tech carbon composite components, such as telescope housings and applied it to the sport of paintball. "One year around Christmas, we decided we wanted to do something else," said SITE plant manager Dave Weir. " We spent the next three months scheming and developing an all-carbon-fiber composite paintball gun barrel." The product was the ST!FFI, a tournament-quality barrel with a stepped bore (0.002 larger at 5 inches) available in one of a selection of bore sizes in 10-, 12-, 14- or 16-inch (254 mm, 305 mm, 356 mm or 406 mm) lengths or as part of a ST!FFI SW!TCH kit (with nylon carrying case) containing a 0.695-inch bore barrel with four exchangeable sizing breeches (0.685 to 0.691 inch, in 0.002-inch intervals) used to adjust the barrel to minor variations in available paintball ammo.
Barrels were designed with the help of SolidWorks 3-D design software from SolidWorks Corp. (Concord, Mass.), utilizing woven carbon prepreg permeated with a resistant hi-tech polymer epoxy resin, supplied by Bryte Technologies (Morgan Hill, Calif.) with fiber-to-resin ratio controlled to within ±3 percent resin content. Plies of prepreg are meticulously cut to within ±.005 inch (±0.127 mm) on a programmable computer-controlled cutting table from Eastman Machine (Buffalo, N.Y.), then table-rolled onto a tubular polished metal mandrel (precision ground to within ±.0005 inch) and vacuum bagged. SITE declares that barrels are moulded to a tight ±.0005-inch tolerance on the bore size.
About the Author
About The Author: Shelley Borle is a Virtual Assistant, Writer & Expert On Boys. Visit Her Country Variety Lifestyle Magazine http://www.countryvariety.com/CVL.htm as well as her CountryVariety.com Professional Virtual Services site http://www.countryvariety.com Email shelley@countryvariety.com
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