Materials

[Setupjdm]

I'm fairly new to paintball but I have some comments of why paintball companies have not progressed to better materials. Let me begin with a little resoning.
First off I own your everyday Minimag that still have all its stainless parts. Very durable and great quality! Now I am very avid in the automtoive world and I have been thinking why doesnt paintball use the same materials as in the automotive industry? Like Titanium, Carbon Fiber and Kevlar, Magnesium...
Well by watching trends in the paintball world it now seems that everyone has to be lighter and faster. Now someone has to admit it, aluminum is great and cost effective but old technology.
So why haven't there been any titanium markers out there(or are there?) Titanium is extremely light weight, extremely durable and will never corrode! The possiblities would be endless. Same with magnesium, it is very light weight and very strong and not as costly as titanium.
As I see it, why oh why isnt anyone exploring the possibilities of Carbon Fiber& Kevlar? I mean this stuff is vurtually indestructable! Race cars are made of it, factory cars use it, aftermarket uses it. It easy to produce(with the right equipment) and athough not as cheap as aluminum I'm sure people will be willing to pay the extra amount for it. A paintball gun would be extremely easy to manufactur parts for. Basically the body is a couple of tubes, and the trigger frame is also a very easy shape to form. Bolts could be made of this, there by having less recoil because of the lighter mass.
I'm going to assume that someone will post back about the abuse the gun goes through and carbon fiber would not hold up to the abuse. I would disagree to the fact that as long as the material is developed correctly and properly stress tested carbon fiber kevlar would hold up just as long as steel!
Although this was a long post it is still very concise into the subject of different materials.

[angrysasquatch]

The minimag was conceived before aluminum became widely-used, thus it is mostly stainless. AGD's later designs were mostly aluminum.

So, titanium. Great material, very good strength:weight ratio, but much heavier than aluminum. It is in use on a few barrels, but unless it is thinner, you're making it heavier and more expensive. AGD had a little mishap with titanium, forgetting to make it thinner while changing to titanium. Apparently, there's a batch of titanium classic valves somewhere out there . The problem with using titanium on paintball guns themselves is the fact that a thin section of titanium built to endure the same pressures as aluminum will dent much easier than its aluminum counterpart. Thus, you've either got a gun that will dent, or one that's heavier and more expensive than an aluminum gun.

Magnesium is weaker and lighter than aluminum. Its problem is most paintball guns are made mostly by machining. When machining magnesium, either you plant lights on fire (magnesium chips extremely flammable) or your productivity goes to crap because of how careful you need to be while machining. The Smart Parts Epiphany is the only paintball product I know of using magnesium, and its just an aesthetic shell over the gun, not functional.

There are many bolts made of carbon fiber, Orange bolts for matrixes for example were carbon fibre (and they looked oh-so-pretty). I'm pretty sure Orange has moved to delrin bolts now because of how hard it was to bond them onto aluminum bits which served purposes the carbon couldn't. Delrin is a better material for bolts anyhow, bolts don't need to be very strong, just light, and delrin is around carbon's weight (if not lighter). Delrin also self-lubricates, it really is the perfect material for bolts. Carbon fibre obviously can't be used for the guns themselves, there are too many threaded holes, and then you've got aluminum buts glued onto the carbon since you can't thread carbon. Carbon is also highly abrasive wherever there is a hole in it. Triggers have been made from carbon, I believe they were in the neighborhood of $100 a pop. Not worth it to too many people. There are many carbon barrels out now, they work well and are the best place to get rid of weight since the barrel is farthest from the center of inertia of the gun. With the racecar bit, the whole body is made of carbon, yes, but not the engine. We don't need to worry about aerodynamics so there is not much use for it. Our paintball guns are just the engine, frame and wheels, no body panels to worry about and no extra weight required or needed. (unless you buy an Ion )

Most of these new wonder materials are in use in paintball, the problem is we cant apply it to all aspects of the gun.