Tips and travel

[Neil]

I was reading the solid state tip thread and wondered: why do epee tips have a travel requirement but not foil tips? Does anyone know what the historical reason was for not having a travel requirement on foil tips?

Electric epee was introduced before foil, so there must have been a reason for not requiring travel for foil tips (unless the travel rule was introduced later on...)

[smeric28]

foil does have a distance requirment you must be able to fit a shim i think .5mm unter the button. Though a foil would be set off without traveling the full distance.

[DHCJr]

That is a very good question, but first let me discuss the travel test. In the rule book, M.11.4, the Maximum total travel must be Less than 1 mm. If you can fit a 1 mm shim in the gap, then technically it is illegal. It is still on the books, but it is no longer necessary. What was happening with the slow relays is a hit to the guard and the time the tip would take to complete the circuit could cause off-target light to come on. This was put in because of the slowness of the relays. When was the last time a relay box was produced.

The reason for the difference between Foil and Epee, I believe is technical. With the boxes now, you could program very easily multiple inputs to decide what to do. It would have been easier to only have one live circuit and use that. The way to get a on-target was to break the circuit through the weapon, while completing the circuit through the lame. I wish they had come up with a way for travel. We wouldn't be in the bind we are in.

[Neil]

I wish they had come up with a way for travel. We wouldn't be in the bind we are in.

But it doesn't seem hard to allow for travel in a foil tip. Just take a german tip and put another smaller, weaker spring between the collar that the grubs screws fit into and the base of the tip that contacts with the collar when the tip is not depressed. The smaller spring would be compressed when the tip is not depressed. When the tip hits something, the smaller spring would stretch until the tip has moved the required travel, when it would break contact with the collar. It would be much easier to describe with a diagram

Maybe there were more technical reasons why they couldn't do it.

I don't suppose anyone has a diagram of a Mangiarotti tip?