Some considerations on the dynamic characteristics of pneumatic cylinders

The demand for automation and labor saving has brought about an increase in the usage of pneumatic actuators. Pneumatic cylinders are economical, convenient to use and can be driven at high speeds, and therefore, they are used widely as operating units in various machines. In recent years, microprocessors have advanced which has made them more accessible, hence many efforts are being made to develop a microprocessor-based position control system with a pneumatic cylinder used as an actuator. However, due to the friction of the moving parts and the compressibility of air, a systematic method of analyzing and designing pneumatic cylinder control systems has not been established. The authors investigate the effects of heat transfer and linearization, and determine an appropriate dynamic model for the evaluation of pneumatic cylinder performance in applications such as position control and high-speed driving.