The Problem

When playing paintball, speed is key- whether it is moving from spot to spot, shooting, or reloading.  Most paintball guns have a hopper that carries about 100 paintballs.  When a player has to reload their paintball gun, they open a cover on the hopper and pour the paintballs inside.  This process requires two hands, is time-consuming and takes concentrated effort so no ammunition is lost on the ground.

The Solution

I created an attachment to the standard hopper.  This device provides a sealed iris merging with a secondary iris on the spare ammunition canister.  When unified, the player simply opens the iris by twisting the canister and the paintballs fall into the hopper.  Swift loading gives the consumer a game field advantage.

During my product realization phase, speedy prototyping is critical to the design process and something I heavily rely on.  To show the concept, I fashioned the prototype device using SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) and Laser cut parts.