A full-metal left arm supersuit inspired by Iron Man. Equipped with a cannon, airgun, and flamethrower.

At some point in life everyone has wondered what it would feel like to be Iron Man. The fourth iteration of the supersuit and the first to be full-metal, the Mark IV Supersuit draws inspiration directly from Iron Man, as well as various YouTube channels. It consists of a steel left arm as well as a vest with a front control box. The control box houses most of the electronics including delay relay timers, batteries and safety switches for all three systems. The three systems, all mounted on the arm, are a small flamethrower, a full-auto air-powered ball bearing gun, and an air-powered cannon. Three buttons are located on the left fingers so that the system may be operated solely with the left arm. When the button on the left middle finger is pressed, a solenoid opens allowing propane gas from a propane cylinder mounted on the back to travel down the arm and be ignited by a high voltage generator. The ball bearing gun operates at 350 psi and launches 1/4" ball bearings at 300 feet/sec producing 3.1 FPE. It consists of a solenoid valve, a safety release valve and a quick exhaust valve which work together to fire four blasts of air per second. A pneumatic reload system, which closes a breech and chambers a bearing with each blast, allows the bearings to be loaded and shot at the same rate. The air-powered cannon is made up of a solenoid valve and a quick exhaust valve and has a barrel diameter of 0.57". It operates at 120 psi and is able to produce up to 25 FPE. Air is stored at 3000 psi in a paintball tank located on the side of the vest which is regulated down to 500 psi before connecting to the arm. Overall, the arm turned out to be a very cool project with some powerful weapons on board, but drawbacks include it being cumbersome and difficult to put on. Mark IV also took a long time to build because all the metal pieces and all the parts had to be crafted from hand, as none of the project is 3D printed. The next iteration of the supersuit solves some of these problems.

AIR-POWERED BEARING GUN SYSTEM

The air-powered bearing gun utilizes a high-pressure solenoid valve, a safety valve and a quick exhaust valve to rapidly expel bursts of air multiple times per second. When the button on the left index finger is pressed, air enters through the solenoid into the quick exhaust valve filling the fixed volume reservoir. When the safety valve set pressure is met (350 psi), the safety valve opens releasing air and actuating the quick exhaust valve causing the air in the fixed volume chamber to be released almost instantaneously down the barrel. The air then travels into the pneumatic reload section where it must push the breech closed in order to travel past the bolt and expel the bearing down the barrel. The bolt then returns to its initial position due to a spring. When the solenoid is held open this process occurs repeatedly twice per second.

FLAMETHROWER

A very simple design, the flamethrower works using a solenoid valve attached to a propane tank and a high voltage generator. It is is mounted on a servo-controlled arm that deploys and retracts with the push of a button on the control box. When the button on the left middle finger is pressed, propane at around 100 psi flows through a tube into the air-propane mixer where air is drawn into the back to allow easy ignition of the propane by the high voltage generator resulting in a small but hot flame.

AIR CANNON

The air cannon works in a very similar manner as the bearing gun, but it instead uses a 3-way solenoid without a safety valve. When the solenoid is opened to the air input using the left ringfinger, air fills the fixed volume chamber. When the solenoid is switched back to the exhaust port, air is released actuating the quick exhaust valve to rapidly expel air down the barrel.