airgun

Air weapons, such as pellet guns and BB guns, are generally thought of as safe and are easy to obtain without a license. While very little research has been conducted on their wounding capability, it is known that these air weapons do cause significant number of injuries and sometimes fatalities. Researchers at the School of Science Engineering and Technology at Abertay University in Scotland have put their TA.XTPlus Texture Analyzer to work to discover the wounding capability of air weapons.

“In this study ballistic gel was tested by bloom and rupture tests to check on consistency of production. Two series of tests were carried out firing into unclothed gel blocks and blocks loosely covered by different items of clothing to simulate attire (t-shirt, jeans, fleece, and jacket).”

Bloom value and rupture strength were examined with a TA.XTPlus Texture Analyzer fitted with a 5 kg load cell. The results show that even though air weapons shoot low energy projectiles, the cloth fibers covering the testing blocks were entrained in the gel which indicates the potential for bodily harm through skin/flesh penetration and subsequent infection.

Read more here.

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