Ion Firing Assembly [ZDSPB Tech]

Ion Firing assembly
This page encompasses the SFT o-ring, feedneck, barrel, and detents. Most of these are just minor features of the marker, but deserve some explanation nonetheless.

The term firing assembly generally refers to the bolt and other firing components used in the marker. The Ion's main moving part is the bolt itself, which interacts with three other components to fire the marker. There are multiple replacement firing assembly components available, all discussed later.

The four parts of an Ion bolt assembly include the bolt itself, boltstop, fire chamber, breech section, and swivel donut.
· Bolt - Thin, elongated piece with exterior grooves, an o-ring at the rear, and a pair of o-rings toward the front.
· Boltstop - Small ring-shaped piece, controls the release of air through the bolt's grooves.
· Fire chamber - Large enclosure that houses the bolt and boltstop, this serves as the marker's dump chamber (stores the air the fires the paintball).
· Breech section - Facilitates the recocking of the marker, also houses the feedneck and other parts necessary to load the marker.
· Swivel donut - Rear component to the fire chamber. Serves to deliver pressurized air to the chamber, through the donut (it swivels around the fire chamber).

Pictured above is a disassembled bolt assembly. The swivel donut is shown attached to the fire chamber becuase it rarely, if ever, needs to be removed.

Pictured above is an assembled bolt kit. The fire chamber is threaded to screw onto the breech section, securing it into place.

Information relating to how the marker operates, design concepts, and other technical specs can be found on the Design & Theory page (refer to the Related Links section at the bottom of the page).

Pneumatics Connection:
Connected to the underside of the body section are a pair of microline hose fittings, which serve to carry pressurized air to and from the firing assembly (depending on the hose). These connections are made using 10-32 threaded barbs or push-to-connect fittings (aka. banjo fitting), which seal the necessary connections. For more information on the hose system, refer to the Solenoid & Internal Hoses page in the Related Links section.

Aftermarket Bolts:
Upgraded bolts have the slight advantage of decreasing the recoil of the gun by lightening the moving mass. Some have other features of their own, depending on the design. Some use different materials, again depending.
Dual tail o-ring designs allow for increased efficiency, whereas lower bolt mass helps to keep recoil down if you're having trouble with it. Bolt weight/mass has absolutely no bearing on any other factor within practicality. The speed, efficiency, consistency, moving force, and other aspects will be the same regardless. If a developer tells you otherwise, they either lack sufficient understanding of how an Ion operates, or are simply trying to unrealistically hype the product.

Bolt:	Design:	Mass (grams):	Tail orings:*	Price:	Picture:	Notes:
SP Stock bolt	one-piece aluminum	32.9	1	$21
Orange Unicorn	multi-piece aluminum/carbon fiber	?	1	$		Includes a new boltstop to reduce fire chamber air volume. The bolt is prone to tolerance problems on the carbon fiber portion, which can wear out over time.
Lucky LBM	two-piece delrin-esque polymer	15.1	1	-		Prone to inner boltstop o-ring problems (replace with a stiffer 14/90 to prevent blowout). The botl is two pieces fused together, which can fracture apart in extreme cases.
Lucky Aluminum	two-piece aluminum	29.5	1	$40		This aluminum Lucky bolt version was created to allow higher reliability (the bolt cannot snap as with the polymer style).
TechT L6	two-piece aluminum	16.5	2	$55
MCP SRC ***	multi-piece aluminum/polymer	10.4	1***	$		Project was never finalized
NDZ Pro-Equ	one-piece aluminum	24.9	1	$37
Orange Nano **	one-piece aluminum	17.4	1	$60		Includes the new resized boltstop.
SP Firebolt	two-piece aluminum	16.0	1	$40
Shocktech Superfly	onepiece aluminum	?	2	$50		For some reason, this is available in multiple colors.
Redz bolt	one-piece aluminum	21.5	2	$45
NDZ Skeleton	two-piece aluminum	10.5	2	$50		This is a redesigned version of the original NDZ Pro-Equ bolts.
Lucky bolt v3 (LBM)	one-piece delrin-esque polymer	?	1	$		Includes new boltstop.
TechT L7 **	one-piece aluminum	8.5	2	$50		Includes new boltstop and rear plug component.
Trinity Sick bolt	two-piece aluminum	11.4	2	$30		Also available in multiple unnecessary colors.
Orange Nano Extreme***	multi-piece aluminum	17.4	1***	$30		Price is for the upgrade kit to be used with your existing Nano bolt, sold separately.
Bob Long Pillow	one-piece aluminum	25.1	1	$50		Uses a round foamie-style rubber brace at the front.
Deadlywind Hollow-point **	one-piece aluminum	7.4	1	$55		Unique design that is invulnerable to snapping problems, since this bolt lacks porting. This also includes a built-in anti-rollback feature.

* The number of tail o-rings influences the efficiency of the marker. Bolts with two tail o-rings allow for the fire chamber to be sealed during firing, which is known to increase efficiency. Bolts that utilize one o-ring will slow down air inlet during firing, but not shut it off.
** This denotes the bolt not utilizing a "tail" portion to balance the fire chamber. These bolts don't control the refilling of the dump chamber regardless of the bolt position.
*** Redesigned firing assembly using added components to seal off the fire chamber.

Aftermarket Firing Assembly Parts:
Many developers have produced aftermarket replacement parts for the stock components. Some of them are listed here.
· Stock parts are available from SP or their major retailers. Fire chambers are $35, bolt stops are $8.50, swivel donuts are $10.
· Lucky fire chamber, aka. Lucky Stage-2: Replacement fire chamber for the stock or Lucky bolt that intermittantly helps with efficiency by sealing off air inlet.
· Lucky swivel donut, aka. Lucky Stage-3: Replacement donut for the fire chamber. Available in multiple colors.
· NDZ fire chamber: Replacement fire chamber, available in multiple colors.
· NDZ swivel donut: Replacement donut for the fire chamber, available in multiple colors.

Firing Assembly Maintenance:
The main portion of the regular maintenance schedule for the Ion involves cleaning and lubricating the bolt and related parts. See the related links section at the bottom of the page for instructions.

Overview:
· The Ion's firing assembly consists of the bolt, boltstop, fire chamber, breech, and swivel donut. The bolt is the main moving part of an Ion; it also acts as the valve for the marker. The fire chamber is used to hose it and the other components, within the exoskeleton.
· The bolt requires a proper dwell setting to fire correctly.
· There are multiple aftermarket components available, although none of them are uniquelly better than any others.