Hydraulic Cylinder

By Author: Amit Singh
Total Articles: 6
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A Hydraulic cylinder (also called a linear hydraulic motor) is a mechanical actuator that is used to give a unidirectional force through a unidirectional stroke. It has many applications, notably in engineering vehicles.
Operation:
Hydraulic cylinder get their power from pressurized hydraulic fluid, which is typically oil. The hydraulic cylinder consists of a cylinder barrel, in which a piston connected to a piston rod moves back and forth. The barrel is closed on each end by the cylinder bottom (also called the cap end) and by the cylinder head where the piston rod comes out of the cylinder. The piston has sliding rings and seals. The piston divides the inside of the cylinder in two chambers, the bottom chamber (cap end) and the piston rod side chamber (rod end). The hydraulic pressure acts on the piston to do linear work and motion.
Flanges, trunnions, and/or clevisses are mounted to the cylinder body. The piston rod also has mounting attachments to connect the cylinder to the object or machine component that ...
... it is pushing.
A hydraulic cylinder is the actuator or "motor" side of this system. The "generator" side of the hydraulic system is the hydraulic pump which brings in a fixed or regulated flow of oil to the bottom side of the hydraulic cylinder, to move the piston rod upwards. The piston pushes the oil in the other chamber back to the reservoir. If we assume that the oil pressure in the piston rod chamber is approximately zero, the force F on the piston rod equals the pressure P in the cylinder times the piston area A:

The piston moves instead downwards if oil is pumped into the piston rod side chamber and the oil from the piston area flows back to the reservoir without pressure. The fluid pressure in the piston rod area chamber is (Pull Force) / (piston area - piston rod area):

where P is the fluid pressure, Fp is the pulling force, Ap is the piston face area and Ar is the rod cross-section area.

Pneumatic cylinder (sometimes known as air cylinders) are mechanical devices which use the power of compressed gas to produce a force in a reciprocating linear motion.
Like hydraulic cylinders, pneumatic cylinders use the stored potential energy of a fluid, in this case compressed air, and convert it into kinetic energy as the air expands in an attempt to reach atmospheric pressure. This air expansion forces a piston to move in the desired direction. The piston is a disc or cylinder, and the piston rod transfers the force it develops to the object to be moved. Engineers prefer to use pneumatics sometime because they are quieter, cleaner, and do not require large amounts or space for fluid storage.
Because the operating fluid is a gas, leakage from a pneumatic cylinder will not drip out and contaminate the surroundings, making pneumatics more desirable where cleanliness is a requirement. For example, in the mechanical puppets of the Disney Tiki Room, pneumatics are used to prevent fluid from dripping onto people below the puppets.

Operation

General
Once actuated, compressed air enters into the tube at one end of the piston and, hence, imparts force on the piston. Consequently, the piston becomes displaced (moved) by the compressed air expanding in an attempt to reach atmospheric pressure.
Compressibility of gasses
One major issue engineers come across working with pneumatic cylinders has to do with the compressibility of a gas. Many studies have been completed on how the precision of a pneumatic cylinder can be affected as the load acting on the cylinder tries to further compress the gas used. Under a vertical load, a case where the cylinder takes on the full load, the precision of the cylinder is affected the most. A study at the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, concluded that the accuracy is about ± 30mm, which is still within a satisfactory range but shows that the compressibility of air has an effect on the system.
Fail safe mechanisms
Pneumatic systems are often found in settings where even rare and brief system failure is unacceptable. In such situations locks can sometimes serve as a safety mechanism in case of loss of air supply (or its pressure falling) and, thus, remedy or abate any damage arising in such a situation. Due to the leakage of air from input or output reduces the pressure and so the desired output.

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