inert gasses

[Exodus]

are we restricted to just inert gas in our guns and nitro tanks or can we take it to a new level and safely use other gasses such as oxy or helium?

[Army]

You mean pure oxygen? Too dangerous under pressure, the resulting heat from friction could ignite it. Helium is not dense enough, the tank would have to be huge.

[Exodus]

darn, there goes that idea...

thx ARMY!!!!

[sniper1rfa]

helium is inert

[kutter]

You would not even need friction to ignite oxygen, it can spontaneously ignite when it comes in contact with petroleum products. I am not sure what is in the oil we use in our markers but I would not be suprised to find at least some trace amounts of petroleum.

[ciaran.mooney]

Think how oily paintballs are! GOODNESS GRACIOUS GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!

Sup'air watch out, paintballs fired from O2 tanks will melt the obstacles.

Backplayers could take out the oppositions barracades in seconds.

[Thordic]

Most paintball gun oil is synthetic, however, some oils, such as KC Trouble Free HPA Oil, is made out of mineral oil, which is petroleum based.

As for paintballs themselves, thats all vegetable/fish oil, all organic. Thats why we can have paintball eating contests without people dying

[TheSneakyPengui]

Well....

Pure Oxygen is not flamable, but it sure as hell suports the buring of stuff!!! Fire needs oxygen to burn, pure oxygen will send a fire the size of ciggerete to a huge explosion, pure oxygen is not flamable , it just strongly supports the property of BURNING! and if you put helium in your tank , it would float away! jk, but the oxygen this is right.

[PyRo]

Listen to Army, pure oxygen will burn.
Petroleum based oil + o-rings=bad
your not supposed to use any petroleum based oils in paintball guns. The ones Thordic mentiond are not petroleum based

[cphilip]

Pure oxygen will burn anything! Even things you normally would think are not fuels. Like metal. It is anticipated that if our atmosphere were only one or two percent more Oxygen from the 21% it is now we would all burn up from uncontrolable fires. And that is the magic of our world realy. 21% (give or take a minute amount) is the perfect balance and we have it. Thats why we exist. Always amazes me to think about it.

Thordic: Mineral Oil is Paraffin (wax) based not Petroleum based.

[athomas]

Actually, TheSneakyPenguin is correct. Oxygen is not flammable but does support the burning of other substances.

If you check the North American Emergency Response Guidebook for dangerous materials it lists the potential hazards for oxygen as:

"Substance does not burn but will support combustion"

Oxygen is classed as a class 2 gas

2.2 - A non-flammable, non-poisonous, non-corrosive gas.

If any other substances near it are volitile or combustible, caution should be exercised. The oily residue on a paintball or the gun lube would not be considered a volatile fuel.

Hope this helps

[cphilip]

Yes it is not itself flammable. It needs a fuel however...But and a big but! is the higher the percentage the more EVERYTHING becomes a fuel! While your DOT hazard class (thats what the EGR Guide uses) of Class 2.2 for Oxygen itself is correct the presence of pure 100% oxygen will promote the combustion of anything on that marker. Rubber, plastic and your clothes and even the paintballs! Even the metal eventually. It creates such oxidizing situation it will start a fire on anything. Happened in the Space Program remember? Metal will burn very well even with out extra percentages of it if it gets hot enough. With it? Its like Charcoal!

[TheSneakyPengui]

I have...

I have delt with 100% pure oxygen give or take a few percents, and it took a wood splint that I had just blew out, but was still cherried, and lit it back up in an instatn when i exposed it to the oxygen.

[cphilip]

Yes! its kind of fun stuff to play with isn't it! A man after my own heart. I too like to play with these cool things.

[steveg]

Its hard to imagine a safer gas than good old air (except
for certain citys in the summertime) Its free, except for
the cost of compressing it. when released it goes back to
being air. there is a lot of it (I'm sitting in a room full
of it right now)

Now for that o-ring thing, this might come as a shock to
many of you but O-rings were not invented for paintball,
they were invented to keep petroleum based oil inside
pumps,cylinders and stuff like that.They hold back the gas
in your car, the petroleum based brake fluid in your brake
system, and all kinds of other places that involve keeping
petroleum based liquids were they belong.
Various solvents are bad for some o-rings but even there
there are suitable o-rings