15. 09. 2018
Tappet plate is the most underrated part in the Airsoft Gun. This part has a huge influence on the right functionality (feeding, loading, performance with used air nozzle) and we often see a case, when a customer with new CNC gearbox bought a huge amount of inner parts from different manufacturers and the performance of the gearbox is not as imagined. Unfortunately, this is because lack of knowledge, inexperience and then that person blames the gearbox for every problem. But it is not so simple, because a lot of problems can cause a tappet plate (and also the shape of the nozzle, used hop up bucking, barrel, Hop Up chamber).
Almost every spare parts manufacturers (but not us in the RetroArms), or airsoft replicas manufacturers uses for tappet plate manufacturing the method of injecting plastic into the metal mold. This is very attractive from the economical perspective, but completely inappropriate for the tappet plate, because of its shape. That makes the ending products deformed, out of shape and this makes completely unexpected results during fire, after the gun is completed.
On the next pictures, we want to show you, why you have to use longer or shorter nozzle, even when the tappet plates are almost the same. For better imagination, we milled a steel cube with 90° angle.
Picture n.1 – Tappet plate made in china, front part is deformed. The nozzle would be in unexpected position.
Picture n. 2 – Tappet plate made by „quality“ manufacturer, front part is bended, causing that the nozzle will be moved more into the chamber. There is a risk, that gun won’t feed or choke. If you want to use this kind of tappet plate, you have to use shorter nozzle, but that can also cause lower performance of the gun.
Picture n. 3 – Tappet plate made by „quality“ manufacturer, front part is bended, causing that the nozzle will be moved more into the chamber. There is a risk, that gun won’t feed or choke. If you want to use this kind of tappet plate, you have to use shorter nozzle, but that can also cause lower performance of the gun.
Picture n. 4 – Tappet plate from „quality“ manufacturer, front part is bended on the other side, than the first tappet plates. Nozzle will be less inserted into the chamber, there is a risk of lower performance than expected. It will need a longer nozzle with a risk of the choking of the gun.
It is clearly, that these tappet plates have different kinds of deformations. These deformations are created during cooling of the plastic material, injected into the metal molds. This also makes another problem, these tappet plates are much more weaker and can break easily. Buying these tappet plates demands more performance adjusting of the nozzle and Hop Up bucking. This scenario makes completely unsure performance of the gun on the first try.
There is also an offer of 3D printed tappet plates. It is a good idea, but this technology does not afford precise printing of these parts. We also measured front part angle of the 3D printed tappet plate for better understanding.
Picture n. 5 – 3D printed tappet plate has the same problems like the injected ones – bended front part. There is need of nozzle adjusting with unsure performance.
We were also curious about the durability of 3D printed tappet plate. 3D printing is based on layering thin heated plastic thread, so there is not expected long lifetime, but this bad quality was not expected even from us, the tappet plate was broke almost instantly.
Video where the 3D printed tappet plate broke.
3D printed products are good as a model for imagination and functionality of the ending product, but not good as parts used under mechanical strain. We do not recommend using parts made on 3D printer like tappet plates etc. Only exceptions are atypical sniper rifles, where are tappet plates under much less pressure than like the Full Auto AEG replicas.
We wanted to try manufacturing tappet plate from aluminum and we made it and tested. Aluminum and dural are not good material for this exact part. Tappet plate must be plastic, because of its flexibility. The piston gear takes tappet plate with strength and lifetime of the aluminum tappet plate is not so long (even in situation when we use high quality dural). Really, do not use aluminum tappet plate in your gearbox.
Picture n.6 – Testing of our own CNC tappet plate made from aircraft dural. We will not be manufacturing this tappet plate, not even on a order.
In RetroArms company, we made parts in a way, when they have a purpose or solve a problem. That is why we manufactured tappet plate in a way, when it is straight, resilient and have extreme durability. Our tappet plate is manufactured on CNC milling machine from POM material. That is why we can say, that this is the best tappet plate on the market.
Picture n.7 - Front side of the tappet plate is absolutely straight. There is no need of nozzle adjusting a gun will work without any problem.
Video as a proof of material resilience that prevents from breaking. In an airsoft replice, this CNC tappet plate has a long lifetime.
We picked up some kinds of tappet plates and measured them with special tool. We measured front part of the nozzle to the front part of the gearbox. The differences can be easily seen and that is the main reason, why it has so big influence on airsoft replicas like AR15, where different parts from different manufacturers makes different performance and reliability. We can basically say, that every tappet plate will be different, but not ours.
We took for measuring tappet plates V2 from different manufacturers with the same nozzle length.
Picture n.8 – Sample of the tappet plate 1, distance 16,71 mm.
Picutre n.9 – Sample of the tappet plate 2, dstance 15,47mm.
Picture n. 10 – Sample of the tappet plate 3, distance 15,65mm.
As said on the beginning, different tappet plates have different shapes. This is the reason why you need different nozzles and this is the ending of our measures. That means that tappet plate has a huge influence of performance, reliability and functionality of the airsoft rifle. Results in our test are 16,71 mm (highest) – 15,47 (lowest), the difference is 1,24 mm! So theoretically, for AR15 airsoft rifle we would need to test nozzle from 20,2 to 21,7 mm lengths, that is 1,5 mm difference. We also need to count with different shapes of the nozzles, different sizes of the Hop Up buckings, gearbox movement during fire and more factors, which have influence on the gearbox. This is also the answer on the question, why we have this huge offer of our nozzles.
We recommend also reading our article about different sizes of the inner gearbox parts.
