Paintball having reduced drag
A paintball comprising a thin-walled capsule filled with paint, wherein the surface of the capsule is formed as a polyhedron, for example, a dodecahedron. The angled surface faces of the polyhedron cause turbulent air flow over a greater percentage of the paintball surface than in a prior art smooth, spherical paintball. The air flow thus remains “attached” over more of the paintball surface, thereby reducing form drag of the paintball. An added benefit of a paintball formed in accordance with the invention is that the structure includes a plurality of intrafacial edges which are currently believed to be preferred lines of impact breakage of the paintball.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/580,608, filed Jun. 17, 2004
TECHNICAL FIELDThe present invention relates to aerodynamic spheroids; more particularly, to paintballs for use in hunting sport games; and most particularly, to an improved paintball having a polyhedral outer surface for reduced drag and greater range.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONSo-called “paintballs” are an integral element of a well-known mock hunting sport wherein players attempt to deliver paintballs into rupturing contact with other players. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,001,880; 5,018,450; 5,393,054; 5,353,712; 5,448,951; 5,640,945; 5,762,058; 5,823,173; 5,936,190; 6,082,439; 6,145,441; 6,230,630; 6,375,981; 6,530,962; 6,574,945; and 6,615,739, the relevant disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The sport or recreational activity known as “War Games” is currently one of the fastest growing sports in North America. Typically, players are arranged into two or more teams and shoot paintballs at members of the opposing teams in a hide-and-seek setting. When a paintball strikes a player of an opposing team, the paintball ruptures and releases the fill material or “paint” onto that player. Any player who has been struck by a paintball is marked and thus disqualified from continuing in the game.
A paintball comprises a generally spherical capsule having a typical thickness of about 0.010 inch and enclosing a charge of a colored liquid, referred to generally as “paint.” The paint, while typically liquid in most paintballs today, may be in any phase. The current invention is not limited to liquid fill materials, or to single-phase fill materials. Typically, the capsule is formed of gelatin and the paint is a dyed aqueous sugar solution that may include additives such as starch and polyethylene glycol to improve breakage resistance in handling and firing.
In the sport, a paintball typically is fired from a hand-held gun employing a compressed-gas charge which can accelerate the paintball without causing it to rupture within the gun. In organized paintball activities, the discharge velocity of a paintball is limited to 300 feet per second; at higher paintball velocities, human injury can result. Thus, a typical paintball gun can discharge a paintball at about 298 feet per second.
The limit on initial muzzle velocity creates a resulting limit in range of fire of a regulation paintball from a regulation gun.
The flight of a paintball is typically ballistic, following paraboloid path dictated by gravitational acceleration in the vertical direction and muzzle velocity in the horizontal direction. The path is not ideally parabolic, however, because a projectile is subject to both frictional drag forces and form drag forces in the horizontal direction, causing a progressive reduction in velocity during the flight. The practical result is that the range of a paintball is significantly less than theoretical, typically only about one-tenth the ideal range in the absence of drag. A greater range from the same initial velocity is highly desirable.
What is needed in the art is a means for increasing the range of a paintball within the initial velocity limitations of the sport.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved paintball that can travel farther than prior art paintballs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONBriefly described, a paintball in accordance with the invention comprises a thin-walled capsule filled with paint, wherein the surface of the capsule is formed as a polyhedron, for example, a dodecahedron. The angled surface faces of the polyhedron cause turbulent air flow over a greater percentage of the paintball surface than in a prior art smooth, spherical paintball. The air flow thus remains “attached” over more of the paintball surface, thereby reducing form drag of the paintball.
An added benefit of a paintball formed in accordance with the invention is that the structure includes a plurality of interfacial edges which are currently believed to be preferred lines of impact breakage of the paintball. The manufacturing processes used to create the paintball also may be used to induce false mold markings along the interfacial edges, such that the parting line from the manufacturing process does not introduce asymmetry into the paintball shape. Further, the edges may be preferentially raised, or indented, to control the impact breakage characteristics and the deformable body characteristics of the ball during firing and flight.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring to
A currently-preferred polyhedron is a regular dodecahedron, as shown in
As best seen in
Paintball 10 may include a plurality of similar or dissimilar liquid or other material charges within the closed chamber of shell 12 which may be separated internally by one or more septa 20 that divide the chamber into at least first and second sub-chambers 13a, 13b as best seen in
The purpose of providing shell 12 as a closed polyhedron is to reduce form drag, thereby promoting longer flight of a paintball so equipped. The benefits of reduced drag are well known for spherical and ellipsoidal bodies, and are equally applicable to polyhedral bodies, for the same reasons. A currently-preferred polyhedral shaped shell can reduce form drag on a paintball by between 25% and 50% as compared to an unfeatured, spherical paintball of otherwise identical weight, size, and composition.
Drag coefficients for three-dimensional ellipsoidal bodies of revolution. Source: Mechanics of Fluids, By Irving H. Shames, 2nd edition, © 1982, Table 10.3, Page 409, McGraw Hill, ISBN 0-07-056385-3.
With reference to
The results illustrated in Table 1 and
It is desirable to have a paintball projectile that is generally spheroidal in shape during the process of storage, transportation, and loading from the paintball feeder into the breech of a paintball gun. The generally spheroid shape has numerous materials handling advantages, including the primary advantages of being able to load the projectile into the gun without need to orient the projectile in a particular fashion, and for compatibility with the large installed user-base of paintball guns which have the ability to manipulate and fire only those projectiles that are generally spheroid. At the same time, a paintball which can be initially fired in a generally spheroid shape, and can be caused to deform into an elongated aspect ratio as illustrated in Table 2 during the process of firing the paintball from the gun or during its flight from the muzzle to the target, can exhibit reduced total drag coefficient, CD, and hence improved range. The present invention meets these needs.
While the invention has been described by reference to various specific embodiments, it should be understood that numerous changes may be made within the spirit and scope of the inventive concepts described. Accordingly, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the described embodiments, but will have full scope defined by the language of the following claims.
Claims
1. A paintball for discharge from a paintball gun, comprising:
- a) a semi-rigid shell defining a closed chamber; and
- b) a material charge contained within said chamber,
- wherein said shell is formed in a shape defining a closed polyhedron on at least the outer surface thereof, said polyhedron comprising a plurality of faces intersecting at a plurality of interfacial edges.
2. A paintball in accordance with claim 1 wherein said faces are selected from the group consisting of planar, convex outwards, concave outwards, and combinations thereof.
3. A paintball in accordance with claim 1 wherein said plurality of faces is identical.
4. A paintball in accordance with claim 1 wherein said plurality of faces is non-identical.
5. A paintball in accordance with claim 1 wherein said polyhedron is selected from the group consisting of buckyball, triacontahedron, pentagonal dodecahedron, icosahedron, hexakisoctahedron, triakisoctahedron, icositetrahedron, octahedron, cube, hexakistetrahedron, tetrahedron, deltoid dodecahedron, diakisdodecahedron, pentagonal icositetrahedron, tetrahedral pentagonal dodecahedron, deltoid dodecahedron, trigonal dipyramid, tetragonal dipyramid, and rhombohedron.
6. A paintball in accordance with claim 1 further comprising at least one internal septum dividing said chamber into at least first and second sub-chambers.
7. A paintball in accordance with claim 6 further comprising at least first and second material charges disposed in said first and second sub-chambers, respectively.
8. A paintball in accordance with claim 7 wherein said first and second charges are identical in composition.
9. A paintball in accordance with claim 7 wherein said first and second charges are non-identical in composition.
10. A paintball in accordance with claim 1 wherein the aerodynamic form drag of said paintball is at least 25% less than the aerodynamic form drag of an unfeatured prior art paintball.
11. A paintball in accordance with claim 1 wherein the manufactured shape of said shell is aerodynamically deformable during firing and flight of said paintball from a firing means.
12. A paintball in accordance with claim 1 further comprising false molding marks on the surface thereof.
13. A paintball in accordance with claim 12, wherein the false molding marks are positioned on the interfacial edges.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 17, 2005
Publication Date: Jan 19, 2006
Inventor: Edward Hensel (Fairport, NY)
Application Number: 11/156,146
International Classification: F42B 10/00 (20060101);