We have been seeing a few questions lately about the sizing of ball links and why. Below is my reasoning for keeping the design of Synergy ball links tight.
Plastic is one of the most versatile materials on the planet today. However, there are challenges when dealing with injection molded plastic parts.
- Plastic parts are injection molded at very high pressures in order to reduce the amount of shrinkage after the part has cooled. However, you can only reduce this so much. Shrinkage must be accounted for in the design so that the part comes out within the correct tolerance. This has little to do with why the Synergy links are tight, it's just a bit of information so that you know the difficulties in making plastic parts correctly.
- As most of you know, many materials if not all expand and contract with cold and hot temperatures. Heat expands the link making the ball link ID loose, cold contracts making the ball link tight. If a ball link is made to fit perfectly in a controlled environment around 72 degrees Fahrenheit what happens when you fly in cold or hot weather? In cold weather, you are probably okay, in hot weather you better worry about those links that were perfectly fitting at 72F.
This is why Synergy chooses to let the pilot size their own ball links to suit their geographical location as well as personal preference. Could I make a link that fits perfectly? Yes! But knowing what you know now about plastic, why would you want that? These are the fine details that go into a high quality helicopter which most take for granted and some find annoying.
I hope that helps explain the critical nature of properly sizing your ball links.
Thanks,
Matt Botos
