"Nitro Piston 2 Patent Issued To Crosman CorporationBloomfield, NY-February 21, 2017. The Crosman Corporation is pleased to announce that the United States Patent and Trademark office has issued a patent for technological components used in the market-leading Nitro Piston 2 break barrel platform.“The Nitro Piston 2 (NP2) platform was launched at SHOT Show in 2014, landing in the top 10 of the Blue Book of Gun Values innovation roundup and has enjoyed tremendous success in the marketplace ever since,” says Vice President of Marketing & Product Development, Jennifer Lambert. “We are extremely proud to build on Crosman’s history of innovation with the addition of this patent to our stable of proprietary intellectual property.”The NP2 system has been integrated into Crosman’s premier performance, domestically made Benjamin break barrel lineup. The NP2 platform will also be featured in the new 2017 lineup of air guns featuring all-new SBD (Silencing Barrel Device) technology. SBD’s unique, integrated silencer design reduces the sound of a shot cycle and is three times quieter than standard spring action break barrels delivering the quiet power that air gun consumers have come to expect from Crosman and Benjamin products. The Nitro Piston 2 system generates 15 percent more speed, 35 percent more power, reduces noise and requires up to ten pounds less cocking force for superior performance.For more information on NP2 and the air guns produced with the patented technology visit www.crosman.com."
domestically made Benjamin break barrel lineup.
This appears to be Crosman's most recently actually granted patent, freepatentsonline com/9562738.htmlIt was granted February 7, 2017 but seems to deal with coil spring powerplants. The announcement might refer to a patent that has been "allowed," but not yet actually granted.To determine what is covered by a patent, one must look at the claims at the end of the patent. Here is claim 1 of the above patent:1. An airgun comprising:(a) a barrel; (b) a compression tube having transfer port fluidly connected to the barrel; (c) a compression piston at partially disposed within the compression tube and moveable within the compression tube between a first position and a second position, the compression piston having a piston body and a piston head, the piston head being longitudinally displaceable relative to the piston body during movement from the first position to the second position; (d) a seal connected to the piston head and forming a sealed interface with an inside surface of the compression tube; (e) a spring contacting the compression piston, the spring repeatably moveable between a cocked position and a fired position, wherein the compression piston is in the first position in the cocked position of the spring and the compression piston is in the second position in the fired position of the spring; and (f) a radially expandable bushing connected to the piston body, the bushing radially expanding from a non contacting configuration to a contacting configuration in response to a longitudinal compressive force on the bushing, the longitudinal compressive force corresponding to movement of the spring from the cocked position to the fired position and the radial expansion of the bushing in the contacting configuration sufficient to contact the inside surface of the compression tube. To infringe or "violate" a patent, resulting in money to the owner and an injunction (stop making) to the infringer, an article, in this case an airgun, must have all of the features listed or itemized in the claim.Similarly, to be patentable, the claim must list or itemize something that is different from the "prior art," that is, what has been done before.I have bolded what appear, at a glance, to be the new features in this particular patent. The second feature is described in further detail after the bolding.
I had mine apart last week or so for the first time. The head of the piston was a bit loose so I took it apart and added a little blue locktite to the screw that holds the front to the main piston. I also smeared a very small amount of molly to that red bumper cushion...maybe that was a mistake ?Edit: Thought it might be of interest, the piston is pretty heavy. I don’t have a scale but definitely heavier than the one in my Vantage np or Hatsan 95.
I lined the chamber with super lube and then wiped most of it out so I’m sure I defeated the purpose of the red rubber cushion. I thought it was just a shock absorbing cushion. I really need to get a chrony so I can tell how bad I screw things up lol. As far as spare parts I believe you have to order the whole piston assembly. I have the parts break down from Crosman and there are no individual part numbers, not even for the seal, only one for the whole assembly. As far as “heavy” I meant the piston itself. The front part with the seal and bumper don’t amount to much. The skirt is buttoned from the factory but not real tightly.
It doesn’t seem much different in the shot cycle sense I “tuned” it, maybe a hair smoother if anything. The red dampening bushing is stiff enough that it seems unlikely to expand under compression enough to grip the chamber. I’m guessing it acts more like a cushion and then could slightly delay rebound. That is just my guess and I could be totally wrong seeing that I’m a complete novice at this stuff.I thought that I’ve read somewhere on here that the gas struts are not interchangeable between the np and np2 but I’m not 100% sure. I do no that it takes a lot more effort to cock my Vantage np than my Benjamin np2.