ResQtec Ram makes mincemeat out of cars
I'm not sure what I'd use this for, but I would just love to own one of these ResQtec V2 Rams:
The ResQtec V2 Ram Wrenches Trapped Drivers Free in 13 Seconds
Modern cars do a good job of absorbing the impact of a head-on collision: The metal in the front crumple zones deforms in specific ways, sparing the occupants the brunt of the kinetic energy. The downside — a bad crash can create a hardened-steel trap around the driver and passengers, making it tough to get them out in a hurry. That's where a good hydraulic ram comes in, like the 27-pound V2. Rescuers wedge the end of this $3,030 cylinder on the inside of the door sill and an aircraft-grade aluminum rod extends to push against the windshield pillar. Its 5,000-psi hydraulics deliver spreading force of up to 12.7 tons — more than enough to crack open your wrecked ride like a pistachio. The V2 can create a 31-inch gap in a mere 13 seconds — increasing the odds that once you're free, you'll be rushing to the car dealer, not the emergency room.
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Anyone else glance at this article and think it was about handsfrees gone wild - in ear canals?
I figured a few thousand Chinese headsets were "...making mincemeat out of ears".
... and there's always the good old Jaws of Life: http://www.jawsoflife.com/Main/Content.aspx
The mind wanders to "No Country for Old Men".
The temptation to misuse this this is awful.
I'm not sure how to ask this without it sounding a little interrogatory, but I'm mainly just genuinely curious:
I'm a subscriber to Wired and a daily reader of BoingBoing, and several months ago I was reading through the credits (?) section of Wired and noticed some familiar names in the Correspondents section: Xeni, Cory, Mark, and David. So, what's the relationship between BoingBoing and Wired? It seems like, with Xeni's recent BBtv posts disclosing being sponsored by Microsoft, that perhaps the Wired posts should have a similar "oh-btw-I-also-wrote-this-article-for-Wired-and-they-paid-me-a-little-bit-kthxbai."
I don't know really if I'm concerned about the transparency issue, or just genuinely curious if there's a clear description somewhere that explains what being a "correspondent" for Wired actually means, and how this does or doesn't affect BoingBoing.
davin beat me to it.
working man's price
http://www.americantoolexchangeinc.com/Hydraulic%20frame%20Repair%20Kit%204Ton.JPG
cheeken,
BB is an uberblog. BB posts come from other sites. In a year, there might be hundreds of posts that originated at Wired. Why would that require a disclosure? If you wish to respond, please do so in the Moderation Policy thread, which is in gray, just above Recent Comments.
(salute!) (salute!) PASS! THE ARCH CHANCELLORS! KEYS!!
(stomp stomp stomp, salute! salute!)
CORY
I dunno about owning one, but if I did I'd donate it to the Fire Brigade.
Bless the Brigade.
I've been a fireman (volontary, on the side) for over 12 years over here in Germany. We use similar kind of equipment also. The depicted one in the photo above looks quite sexy, though.
In Germany, there's two favourite tools firemen use to get people out of car wrecks, train wrecks and such:
1.: "Spreizer" (=spreader) which is used to pry open anything you can get the tip into. You can insert it into the gap between the car door and the body, then press the lever, the car's metal just rips open like flakes of butter. You should then insert it anew at the hinges. After two pops, you can take the whole door away.
Here's a picture:
http://tinyurl.com/65t7ya
http://tinyurl.com/6rwmy2
2.: "Schere" (=scissors) are a pair of hydraulic scissors used to cut off stuff, usually the roof of a car at the pillars. In a crashed car, one has to be extremely careful about what and where to cut, since all the metal parts may be under a lot of tension and may just snap when cut, thereby hurting or even killing (beheading and such) the trapped passengers).
Here's a picture:
http://tinyurl.com/6q3lu4
And here's a nice fire brigade exercise video of those two babies in action (german):
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=h0VsBbqp_tg
I really like the new machine, it looks like a good invention to me. I hope the American technical control boards are as tough as the TÜV over here before letting the thing out into the public, so as not to test it on unsuspecting victims...
PS: A funny further detail: Whenever some really massive crash happened, say, on the Autobahn, and someone survived, then there's usually a newspaper headline next day saying something like "Three survived in THIS wreck!!". The point being that the press photographers are let forward to the scene only after the firemen have cut the car to shreds to get the people out... duh...
I'm curious what the required input pressure is and how big of a pump you need in order to drive it at these specs.
vy does ze Zherman engineering alvays look zo damned ZEXY! Nice pics Julian!
I'm going to have to agree with Takuan - this thing is just a glorified bottle jack with a long stroke.
The major improvements over a bottle jack come in the weight department - should be lighter due to the aluminum construction, and in the easy of use department - an electric motor and pump assembly probably powers the hydraulics rather than a simple hand pump.
I wonder how useful it would be in medium severity accidents - those where the frame gets bent to the point door don't open, but not bent enough to use up all the crumple zone. The distance between the A and B pillar may exceed the rams reach length of 31" in the afore mentioned situation.
Seriously, does anyone NOT use aircraft-grade aluminum?