Sizing a pneumatic cylinder to a load and system
Sizing a pneumatic cylinder to a load and system
(OP)
So, just an exercise really, but something ive been mulling over.
Lets stick with round numbers, I have a pneumatic cylinder which needs to move a 10 lb load at the cylinder, and 4" stroke is required, the system has a flow rate of 40cv, and 200psi so there's your supply.
Now the question is: how do you size the cylinder to actuate as quickly as possible with those limitations? Logic dictates you want the smallest cylinder possible to make the most of your flow rate which dictates speed, but there must be a way to mathematically figure out how much a load would slow down a cylinder and discover where more force isn't giving you more acceleration, its just slowing you down because of the limited flow.
Lets stick with round numbers, I have a pneumatic cylinder which needs to move a 10 lb load at the cylinder, and 4" stroke is required, the system has a flow rate of 40cv, and 200psi so there's your supply.
Now the question is: how do you size the cylinder to actuate as quickly as possible with those limitations? Logic dictates you want the smallest cylinder possible to make the most of your flow rate which dictates speed, but there must be a way to mathematically figure out how much a load would slow down a cylinder and discover where more force isn't giving you more acceleration, its just slowing you down because of the limited flow.





RE: Sizing a pneumatic cylinder to a load and system
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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube
RE: Sizing a pneumatic cylinder to a load and system
RE: Sizing a pneumatic cylinder to a load and system
so force with an extra 58% pressure, plus a little bit of slush for friction and such gives you the ideal pressure to use for a given load.
Logically I was thinking that max accepted CV for a cylinder would be equal to the max a tube of the same size could hold (so for a 1/2" tube it would be ~13.84cv) right? Any additional CV beyond that 13.8 would be "wasted" but that is the figure to go with?
1/2" cylinder, @86psi thats balanced to the load, in my mind it seems like I wouldn't want "just enough" force to move the load, I'd want a little more than that to achieve a higher starting acceleration and reduce total cycle time, in this case. I'm a little surprised that higher pressure air doesn't expand measurably faster.
I mean it was a bit of a silly question to begin with, it started when I looked at one of those truck mounted pumpkin launcher cannons that run hilarious amounts of air at really high PSI, and it all seemed wasteful with what I knew about pneumatics.
RE: Sizing a pneumatic cylinder to a load and system
RE: Sizing a pneumatic cylinder to a load and system