The pneumatic cylinder
The pneumatic cylinder
In the earlier chapters we looked at the basic design of a pneumatic system and its most important elements:
Air preparation
Control valves
Flow-regulators
Actuators / cylinders
Tubes and fittings
In this chapter we will be looking at pneumatic cylinders. Cylinders are the most important means of actuation in pneumatics. The cylinder transfers the energy that is stored in the compressed air into movement.
They can be classified by:
Design
Cylinders with piston rods
Rodless cylinders
Diaphragm cylinders
Rotary cylinders
Movement
Linear
Rotary = turning
Function
Single-acting
Double-acting
3- 4-positions
Cushioning
Adjustable, pneumatic cushioning
Flexible cushioning
Without cushioning
There is a very wide variety of pneumatic cylinders. In this training we will only focus the most common ones.