Aussie Industrial Fix-its

Pranks or practical jokes can be fun, as long as they don't end up sending someone to the emergency department. If you have hired an air cannon from a company like ESS Engineering, you may be thinking about doing a prank with it, or you may be wondering what would happen if you direct the air from the cannon on one of your friends.

Unfortunately, however, that is not safe, and here are the reasons, you should not do any practical jokes with an air cannon.

1. Air cannons are designed to launch soft projectiles.

Air cannons are designed to be an innovative marketing or engagement tool. They can be used at concerts, seminars or other special events. In particular, they throw soft objects such as t-shirts or stress balls safely into a crowd of people.

When you hire an air cannon, the company will give you a list of safety tips, and this includes not using the air cannon when it's empty and not launching heavy, hard or sharp objects. If you use it improperly, you may damage the air cannon.

2. The power of the air cannon can knock people down

As air cannons are designed to shoot objects into large crowds, they come packed with a lot of pressure. In most cases, you can turn down the pressure to suit your needs, but if you do a prank with an air cannon on full blast, you can easily knock someone over, and they may get seriously injured.

3. The power of an air cannon can damage other objects

In addition to knocking someone over, a long blast from an air cannon may damage objects as well. For example, if you have one of the highest power air cannons and you simply set it to release copious amounts of pressurized gas, you may even blow doors off their hinges. In other cases, you may cause nearby objects to fly into the air and hit other items or even people.

4. Pranks waste carbon dioxide gas

When you hire an air cannon, it comes with a canister of carbon dioxide. This compressed gas provides the pressure necessary to lift things into the air. However, if you turn on the canister to do a practical joke, you waste its gas, and as a result, it may not be there when you need it.

For more safety tips with air cannons, talk with an air cannon hire company for ideas.