A little while ago, on www.nerfhaven.com, many of us had the pleasure of meeting a mechanical engineer from hasbro who is involved in designing of nerf products. In addition to pictures of the REV-6 he told us about, he also mentioned the fundamental regulation regarding nerf blasters, which is the kinetic energy density of a projectile fired using stored energy( like that of a stored spring or air). The equation is as follows:
KED= (0.5mv^2)/A
m= mass of projectile
v= intial velocity
A= impact area of projectile
Nerf designers have to meet a certain value or less of KED, which is most likely related to what KED damages sensitive tissue, most likely the eye.This explains why blasters like the titan and ultimator shoot so much further than guns like the hornet and other "dart" guns. Also, guns like the tornado,firestorm and zing-ring launcher use the airfoil design to provide for an aerodynamic projectile that can shoot 70-140 feet flat without violating these regualtions. Other regulations are the more obvious ones like the one that delayed the mad hornet, in that it had a "stinger meter" that could poke someones eye out or the possible dangerous ramifications of a rubberband coming off of the zap snaps blaster, why it was never released( I own one). Noise produced (what took the mattel sonic blaster off the market in 1964 with 160dB, similiar to that of a jet plane going off) is also a fundamental regulation, though most nerf guns don't even get close to a dangerous decibel level. One of the big things in making nerf guns is to makesure you can only use projectiles designed for the product, like the "posts" or the newer spring mechanism's that make the dart have to set it back in order to release air. This is good for both safety and economically allows nerf to sell micro darts for $4 for 10, balls for $4 for 5 megas $4 for 5, and titan missiles $4 each plus shipping. This allows nerf to operate at huge profit margins on an item.
