17 Stroke-Time Control

When designing a pneumatic drive, there can be many objectives which usually lead to different choices of components:

minimum stroke time, i.e. maximum number of cycles per unit time, optimal usage of compressed air, minimum-size circuit members, minimum component price, standardisation to reduce the number of spare parts.

There is no simple guideline how to achieve an optimum design because the response of a drive is the result of a series connection of all components: a couple of sharp 90 elbows installed to cosmetically enhance the machine to improve its saleability can double the stroke time! And not only the static behaviour, i.e. the flow resistance or static friction, but also the dynamic behaviour has to be taken into account: charging and discharging of volumes, acceleration forces or speed-dependent friction. And the fact that almost all relations are non-linear does not make the task easier. However, with todays sophisticated computers and advanced software packages there are very powerful tools available for the design and optimisation of pneumatic circuits. Important are sufficient knowledge of the process where the drive is installed and good models of the pneumatic components. Although there are many books on pneumatics, only very few deal with circuit design and component sizing1. One exception is the study by Fleischer (1995). His final chapter and other results can be summarised as follows:
1

At the end of the 1970s there have been several reports about design and analysis of cylinder drives. Some of them gave monograms to calculate stroke time, piston speed or air consumption (Henningson 1975; Jebar et al. 1978; Hennig 1979). However, the great number of assumptions and simplifications required to derive the charts and the tedious application make them obsolete in the age of powerful digital simulation systems.

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1. The performance time is the result of the interaction of all components: the total resistance of directional control valve, lines, flow control valves, bends and couplings; the cylinder with internal friction and opposing back pressure due to piston movement; and the load with inertia and reaction forces. If cycle time requirements are not met, all components have to be critically examined: a simple exchange of the directional control valve may not be the solution to the problem. 2. There is no need to design a symmetric circuit: single-rod cylinders are often used because the task requires only one rod and similarly different pressures (i.e. pressure regulator in one leg) or only one flow control valve may be part of an optimum design. 3. If the loads or times for the extend and retract strokes are significantly different, a pressure reducing valve for the chamber that requires the lower pressure reduces the consumption of compressed air, see also Chap. 17.4. Due to the lower back pressure, this also reduces the load for the high-pressure stroke and may lead to a shorter stroke time. 4. From a great number of surveyed systems, Fleischer (1995:333) recommends to choose a piston diameter such that the generated force will be approximately twice the (static + dynamic) load to achieve a minimum cycle time. However, if the objective is to conserve compressed air, then the piston diameter should be as small as possible and the generated force 33 % higher than the load. Rohner and Smith (1988:55) recommend to have a nominal force that is 50 % greater than the load which they define as the sum of all external forces, frictional force and inertia force provided that the back pressure force is not more than 40 % of the stationary speed force. 5. Cylinder stroke length should be no longer than required to keep the volumes at a minimum which have to be pressurised with expensive compressed air. 6. Oversized directional control valves are slightly more expensive than correctly sized valves, but do not increase the energy consumption, i.e. operating costs. Cundiff (2001:391) states that good design practice requires that the pressure drop across a valve be around 10 % of line (upstream) pressure. This leads to subsonic flow in the valve and as a result the simple flow capacity descriptions of valves with nominal flow rate or flow coefficient kv are applicable. 7. Prevent air velocities near to the sonic velocity to avoid excessive losses. The effective flow area of valve or cylinder ports should

17.1 Circuits using Quick Exhaust Valves

237

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

therefore be the smallest area in these components and not be further restricted inside (Barth 1994). To reach the maximum terminal velocity, each cylinder requires a particular pressure. Increasing this pressure does not increase the maximum speed, but only increases air consumption. Do not restrict the air flow in the supply line, e.g. by sharp bends. To do so could reduce the pressure of the supply air below the minimum requirements for a pilot-operated valve and thereby cause erratic action. Do not restrict a poppet valves exhaust port as this can adversely affect its operation. Exhaust silencers must be resistant to clogging and have flow capacities at least as great as the exhaust capacities of the valve. Contamination of the silencer can result in reduced flow and increases back pressure. Valves should be installed as close as possible to the cylinders they operate because the volume of air required for filling the hoses never enters the actuators (Dwyer 2004). Keep conductor length to a minimum and conductor path as straight as possible. Using a tube of 5 m length instead of 1 m reduces the flow rate by half (anon. 2005). If unavoidable, use a bend radius of at least 10 times the inner diameter; avoid sharp right-angle turns. A larger conductor diameter reduces the pressure drop across the conductor and often leads to a faster response of the drive. However, when increasing the diameter, the volume which has to be pressurised goes up and that will take additional time. System performance may deteriorate over an extended period of time due to the shrinkage of the inside diameter of lines caused by deposits and due to leakage brought about by wear of sealings.

17.1 Circuits using Quick Exhaust Valves

The principle of operation of quick exhaust valves is presented in Chap. 13.5. Their purpose is the fastest possible release of air from a cylinder chamber to the atmosphere to reduce the back pressure. Figure 17.2 shows measured trajectories when extending a piston. After the directional control valve has switched, the back pressure falls and the extending pressure rises. The remarkable point is that the back pressure keeps falling even when the piston starts accelerating and reaches the high velocity of 2 m/s.

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2 1 4 2 12

5 1

Fig. 17.1. Pneumatic circuit diagram with quick exhaust valve

0.4 Position (m) Pressures (bar)

0.2

0 8 Supply 4 Back Pressure Extend

Speed (m/s)

2 1 0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 Time (s) 0.4 0.5 0.6

Fig. 17.2. Measured response of the circuit in Fig. 17.1. At t = 0.1 s the valve is actuated and the piston extends

17.2 Meter-Out Control

239

17.2 Meter-Out Control

The most often used principle for speed control is called meter-out where an adjustable restriction is placed at the relieving port of a cylinder. Reducing the flow area through this restriction leads to a higher back pressure in the cylinder and thus to a lower velocity. To avoid unnecessary throttling of the entering air, a bypass is provided by a non-return valve. Typically, restriction and bypass are integrated in a one-way flow control valve, see Chap. 15.2. The measured response given in Fig. 17.4 shows that after approx. 1 s the pressures have reached steady state and the speed remains constant until the end cap is reached. This is different to the behaviour in Fig.17.2 where the speed increases all the time. Using meter-out control, the piston may make a considerable jump after start-up of a machine because the restraining back pressure has not been built up. In our experiments we found that for a lightly loaded cylinder the minimum speed achievable by meter-out control was considerably lower that with meter-in control. Fujita et al. (1999) derive non-dimensional parameters to predict the stick-slip effect which is the reason that pneumatic cylinders can not operate below a critical speed.

5 1

Fig. 17.3. Circuit with meter-out control

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Position, Speed

Position 0.2 Speed 0

6 Pressures Extend 4 Back Pressure 2 0 0 1 2 3 Time (s) 4 5 6

Fig. 17.4. Measured response of the circuit in Fig. 17.3. At t = 1 s the valve is actuated and the piston extends

The advantage of the meter-out control is that the restriction acts as a speed controller that will compensate to some degree for small changes in the system, e.g. in load or friction. The disadvantage is the fact that the supply pressure has to be much higher than the pressure required to move the load because it has also to overcome the high back pressure. Figure 17.5 shows for an example system the calculated mass flow rate through the one-way flow control valve for a back pressure in the cylinder between 0 and 4 bar and an atmospheric pressure of 0 bar on the downstream side of the restriction. For a chosen nominal value of 2 bar, the mass flow rate is 1.775 g/s and the cylinder speed 0.72 m/s. At this operating point the sum of all forces acting on the piston is equal to zero: the accelerating force due to the supplied pressure compensates exactly the decelerating forces due to the back pressure and friction. If the piston moves slower, the back pressure goes down and the sum of all forces increases to accelerate the piston to the previous speed. The equivalent holds if the piston moves faster: the back pressure goes up and the sum of all forces decreases to decelerate the piston to the previous speed. This is shown in Fig. 17.6 where the sum of all forces is shown as a function of the speed deviation from the nominal operating point. A nondimensional linearised dynamic analysis of this kind of speed control is given by Fujita et al. (1996).

17.3 Meter-In Control

241

Sum of Piston Forces

0 1 2 3 Chamber Pressure (bar) 4

Mass Flow Rate

0 Speed Deviation

Fig. 17.5. Mass flow rate through restriction as a function of chamber pressure

Fig. 17.6. Sum of all forces = accelerating force as a function of speed deviation from nominal operating point

17.3 Meter-In Control

For one-sided actuators or very short cylinders meter-in control is used where an adjustable restriction is placed at the supply port of a cylinder. Reducing the flow area through this restriction leads to a lower pressure in the cylinder and thus to a lower velocity. To avoid unnecessary throttling of the expelled air, a bypass is provided by a non-return valve. Typically, restriction and bypass are integrated in a one-way flow control valve. The measured response given in Fig. 17.8 shows that the pressures are much lower than with meter-out control in Fig. 17.4 though the mean velocity is higher. And it takes almost 1.5 seconds to build up the pressure required to totally compress the spring in the hydraulic shock absorber installed at the end of stroke. The advantage of the meter-in control is that the supply pressure can be kept as low as possible. However, if full line-pressure is essential for the clamp load or large final pressure at the end of the stroke (welding, heat sealing etc.) meter-in control should not be applied. And even small changes in the system, e.g. in load or friction, affect the piston speed. Meter-in control is therefore only used if the stroke is too short to build up a sufficient back pressure for meter-out control to work, e.g. to extend the short actuators of pneumatic grippers, or if a single-acting cylinder is used, e.g. a bellows or rolling-diaphragm cylinder. For loads that tend to move the actuator on their own meter-in control can not be used.

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5 1

Fig. 17.7. Circuit with meter-in control

Position, Speed

Position 0.2 0 Speed

6
Pressures

4 2 0 0 1

Back Pressure Extend

3 Time (s)

Fig. 17.8. Measured response of the circuit in Fig. 17.7. At t = 1 s the valve is actuated and the piston extends

17.4 Circuits using Two Pressures

243

17.4 Circuits using Two Pressures

Compressed air is a very expensive form of energy and therefore systems have been proposed to conserve pneumatic energy which mostly means lowering the supply pressure2. If a high final pressure at the end of the stroke is needed and the cylinder dimensions are selected appropriately, no conservation is possible. But in many cases it is possible to use a much lower pressure for the return stroke. Then a dual pressure system can be a good choice where the full line pressure and meter-out control is used for the extension and a reduced pressure for the retraction, see Fig. 17.9 for a circuit diagram. Figure 17.10 gives a comparison of the energy consumption of three systems: meter-out control, meter-in control and a circuit according to Fig. 17.9. The required energy is given as the measured electric input to the compressor (1), the calculated gas mass according to the maximum pressure (2) and the measured gas mass (3). All three quantities are normalised and the maximum consumption can always be found for the meter-out circuit, the minimum consumption for the meter-in circuit and the dualpressure circuit is in between. As this dual-pressure circuit is a combination of meter-out for the extension and meter-in for the return, this result comes not surprisingly. Haller and Latino (1996) report energy savings in excess of 25% per cylinder. Kagawa et al. (2000a) use the thermodynamic concept of exergy to study meter-in and meter-out systems and explain their different energy consumption. While our circuit was built from separate valves, there are specialised air saving valves available commercially which include more features for smooth and rapid operation. An alternative approach to the conservation of energy could be a two level system where the main operation pressure would be 12 bar while the discharge pressure would be 5 bar thus retraining the conventional pressure differential of 7 bar. The advantage lies in the ratio of compression to be achieved by the compressor which would be reduced from 8 for the conventional system to 2.2 for the two level system. The possible energy saving could be around 40 %. A comprehensive discussion of the concept
2

A survey Compressed Air Systems in the European Union (Radgen and Blaustein 2001) shows that the reduction of air leaks is the most important energy savings measure: this alone covers 42 % of the overall savings potential! Other relevant measures are recovering waste heat (10 %) or adjustable speed drives for compressors (10%). The optimisation of the actual drive has much less influence on the overall system efficiency than an economical generation, transportation and storage of compressed air.

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is given by Barber (1997:149153). Another approach might be the use of hot air because cooling after compression is the main reason for the low efficiency of pneumatic drives (Barth 2000, Kentschke 2004).

Fig. 17.9. Circuit diagram of a dual pressure system

100
Consumption (%)

Meter Out Meter In Combination

80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3

Fig. 17.10. Comparison of energy consumption for system with meter-out control, meter-in control and control according to Fig. 17.9; given as 1) measured electric power of compressor 2) calculated air consumption 3) measured air consumption

17.5 Oil Cushioning

245

17.5 Oil Cushioning

Hydraulic systems offer the advantage that they can handle high forces with very small components. Pneumatic cylinders can achieve very high speeds at low costs. Some system designs can be optimised by combining the strengths of both domains. A typical example is a pneumatic cylinder with hydraulic cushioning. The pneumatic part is responsible for high speed while the hydraulic cushioning ensures operations at very low speeds or controlled rapid decelerations because oil under pressure is almost incompressible and the oil flowing out of the chamber can be precisely regulated by an orifice while the friction forces of the seals are small compared with the high pressure forces. Figure 17.11 shows the principle of operation. A pneumatic cylinder and an oil cylinder are rigidly coupled. When the pistons are moving, oil is displaced and pressure builds up according to the setting of the throttle or the valve. This slows the air piston down or even stops it if the valve is closed. To ensure that both chambers of the oil cylinder are always filled, the oil reservoir is used. It is spring loaded and thus keeps a minimum pressure of approximately 3 bar. The check valves ensure that oil flows into the suction chamber even if the valve is closed and thus guarantees that no cavitation occurs. Constant velocities as slow as 12 mm/min can be reached.
Oil Reservoir

Valves

Cushioning Cylinder

Air Cylinder

Fig. 17.11. Circuit diagram of an oil cushioning cylinder

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17 Stroke-Time Control

There exist various designs. Some use an external cushioning cylinder that is installed additionally to a conventional pneumatic cylinder. There are also integrated designs available. Figure 17.12 shows one example: a pneumatic cylinder with standard dimensions is used that has a hollow piston rod. In that rod a stationary piston is installed which is mounted at the end of a double tube. In the inner tube the oil flows into the right end of the piston rod. The outer tube supplies oil to the space between the Oring in the pneumatic piston and the O-ring on the oil piston. There are several points that have to be optimised when designing this kind of drive. One is the size of the oil ducts. The diameter of the outer tube is restricted by the diameter of the given pneumatic piston rod that cannot be chosen arbitrarily large. Therefore a compromise between inner and outer duct is needed. Another point is the maximum pressure that can occur when the piston and the driven load is at full speed and the valve is closed rapidly. In this case high pressure builds up that acts on the O-rings. The design has to ensure that the maximum permissible pressure is not exceeded. Digital simulation is a very powerful tool that can answer these questions before any hardware has been built, see Chap. 20.6.
Oil

Inner Oil Duct Pneumatic Piston

O-Ring

Oil

Air Outer Oil Duct

O-Ring Oil Piston

Piston Rod

Fig. 17.12. Cut-away drawing of a pneumatic cylinder with integrated hydraulic cushioning