In the modern automation technology, there are often two ways to complete a drive task: pneumatically or electrically. These kinds of technology are mutually replacable in some applications. In order to remain competitive with the electromechanics and to contribute to the achievement of climate protection goals, manufacturers and users of pneumatic systems are required to increase the energy efficiency of pneumatics at various levels such as actuator part, conducting part and compressed air generation. There is a large variety of well-known energy saving measures, which make it possible to reduce the compressed air consumption of actuators significantly and thus the total operating costs of a pneumatically operated plant.One of the primal and simpliest methods to reduce the energy consumption of existing and to-be-developed pneumatic systems is the correct sizing of actuators. However, even in the most modern machines drives are often over­dimensioned, e.g. due to a lack of awareness of the energy efficiency or doubts about robustness of energy efficient drive solutions.To counteract this, different dimensioning methods have been developed in the last few years which could contribute to the significant reduction of energy consumption. The present paper considers exclusively algebraic approaches, which would allow the engineer to make a first estimation for the actuator size without simulations. This is especially advantageous when a system contains a large number of actuators and it is therefore extremely time-consuming to simulate each actuator individually.In these methods, the actuator size can be calculated e.g. by applying force equilibrium, exergy equilibrium, pneumatic frequency ratio or by operating point analysis. However, there is still no uniform approach for actuator dimensioning in pneumatics, which would be prescribed e.g. at ISO level for the construction practice to find broad acceptance. Some of these approaches might be considered as too theoretical and difficult to handle in industrial practice.Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to evaluate the existing dimensioning methods using mathematical analysis and practical drive examples. Their possible application fields and limitations will be shown and compared. For this purpose, different drive tasks are investigated, such as moving and pressing, and different directions of movement. Movement masses and times are also varied. The robustness of the results is described mathematically.It will also be discussed whether their possible disadvantages could be limited and their advantages enhanced and combined to further sizing approaches. For instance, it is conceivable to combine the assumptions made in the force and in the exergy equilibrium approaches in order to obtain new actuator design methods. The industrial practicability of these methods is also evaluated.The results obtained by different approaches are validated using simulations and measurement results of various practical examples.

Comparative Analysis of Actuator Dimensioning Methods in Pneumatics

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/FPST/FPMC2021/volume/85239

2021 ASME/BATH Symposium on Fluid Power and Motion Control (FPMC2021)

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