Yung Feng fusing

[tr123]

In my experience with other brands there are typically two parallel fuses on shells, one for hand lighting and a second with an e-match port. YF shells have only one fuse that has a plastic toggle coupling midway down the fuse that can be removed to insert an e-match. When hand-lighting these, the fuses of about half of the shells we used did not make it past the coupling and therefore we faced a "hang fire" scenario that was frustrating and potentially dangerous as embers remained in the tube without a successful ignition. Has anyone else experienced this issue with YF shells and/or have a solution / way of checking before loading to ensure a successful launch (without simply just converting to an e-match)? Its also worth nothing that the plastic fuse coupling is reinforced with tape on many of the shells, so it was secure even on some of the ones that did not go off, so there seems to be an issue with the fuse bridging the two sections and not with it being separated during loading.

Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Dmkaz]

Every importer may have slightly different fusings depending what's available/how they specify.

For example - I bought 3", 4" and 8" YF shells from Lynch Imports this past year. The 3" & 4" have the ematch port close to the lift, but also have a long leader with visco on the end for hand-lit.

On yours, are you saying they *only* had a ematch port which you converted to ematch/visco for hand lighting? If I was in that scenario, I would cut the ematch port off completely and fuse in more quick match with a piece of visco on the end. I'm not quite sure based on what you wrote how you were re-fusing these guys for hand-lit. If you can give a bit more detail there we might be able to give some pointers at where things are failing.

[tr123]

They came fused for hand lighting with a visco fuse (actually a flat black slow burning fuse with a shiny texture) attached to the leader. The leader, however, has a plastic coupling in the middle so that you can remove the top section of the leader with the visco and insert an e-match directly into the bottom half that connects to the lift. I didn't do any re-fusing but again with about half of the shells, the second half of the leader that connects to the lift didn't ignite and seemed to fail at the connection point where the plastic coupling is positioned. The other half of the shells with no modification worked just fine.

[Dmkaz]

Thanks for the more detailed info. I have seen these guys before in the wild (on other shells) and can confirm they're a bit wonky. I'm also curious what the 'flat black slow burning fuse was'. It sounds like exposed black match, but that's not exactly slow burning.

I think a lot of the problem resides in the fact that as the quick match leader 'whips' down the gun, it weakens the connection point and doesn't direct the fire down the ematch port. I'd definitely just cut the ematch port completely off and fuse in more quick match directly. Much more time consuming, but you're almost guaranteed a good connection if done correctly.

[displayfireworks1]

This is all difficult for me to visualize. I wish I could see a picture. I have a feeling they are trying a multi-purpose connector for either hand fire or electric fire. I know we have a few Yung Feng distributors, maybe they can comment. I know it is hard to thing about it at the time it happens. When this weird stuff happens, get your phone out and at least take a picture. If these fireworks manufactures are doing something that is not reliable we need to show them.

[displayfireworks1]

At tr123
I am curious, did part of the connector look like this?
.
http://pyrotalk.com/wp-photos/wp-content/gallery/united-states-pennsylvania/connector-83546b8d3869c022636b52ca13a8fb33b39b5b0e.jpg

[tr123]

Yes, the connector looks like that (the only difference being that they are red).

[displayfireworks1]

The more I think about it, it is great idea . I am surprised the fire did not pass through this connection But I can see where some of the potential problems would be. What size where the Yung Feng shells you had the failures on?

[tr123]

5" and 6" primarily.

[displayfireworks1]

It looks like you stated close to a 50% failure rate on these connections not passing the fire. That is unacceptable. These connection are primary in design for electric match, with the match inserted deep into the opening. With that match enclosed , it creates a tremendous amount of fire and pressure. Plus match head is up against the black match , where it need to be. In a hand fire situation ,with the male and female parts connected it looks like it should work. Providing someone built these connection properly.
Next time I am at a distributors they sells these I'll see if I can take a look at them. One more question if you can remember. Using a reference of 0 to 100 , with zero being the point at which the leader connects to the shell and 100 being the point at which you light the fuse . Stating a number in that scale , where is this connector located.Shell 0---------------------------------100 light point.

[tr123]

There is some variation in the positioning of the connector but on the scale you described scale I would say that they generally fall in the 20-40 range (meaning closer to the shell than the middle of the overall leader, with the closest being 6 inches or so from the shell).

[displayfireworks1]

Thanks for that answer. I suspected it was lower in the leader and that may be where the problem is when hand firing. They are placing that connector lower in the leader to give more precise timing when electrical firing for a pyro-musical . Most people hand firing the shell are going to pick the shell up by the leader around the 80 point on that scale I mentioned, this will cause stress to that connector and the stress the exposed area of the quick match. When those shells did not fire you probably had a hard time getting them out of the mortar. I sure would like to see one of these designs or at least a picture. I am surprised Yung Feng is still riding high in the quality range. Someone that knows the business told the typical progression of a popular brand of display fireworks is, they produce a high quality product , everyone goes running to buy that brand, the factory now has more work than they can produce so they sub out some of their work to another factory. Then the quality starts dropping in an effort to meet that demand. Maybe someone at the PGI convention can show me this Yung Feng connector set up.