2 replies to this topic

[Conan]

Hi -

I need to make a simple lifting mechanism to raise a 30 pound, 26" x 24" part about 2". My preferred design is to connect a pneumatic cylinder to each corner of a plate. The part is loaded onto the plate for lifting. The four cylinders are above the plate and raise it into position once the part is loaded.

My question: is it advisable to use four cylinders in this manner (or for that matter, two or three)? My concern is that the cylinders won't extend/retract at the same rate and if the differences are large enough one or more may bind or cause stuttering during the lift. Will I have to rely on tweaking speed controllers on each cylinder to prevent this? Or, am i worried about nothing? Should I drive them from a common valve or use a dedicated valve for each cylinder?

Thanks for the help.
Conan

[Geoffrey Oh]

Hi -

I need to make a simple lifting mechanism to raise a 30 pound, 26" x 24" part about 2". My preferred design is to connect a pneumatic cylinder to each corner of a plate. The part is loaded onto the plate for lifting. The four cylinders are above the plate and raise it into position once the part is loaded.

My question: is it advisable to use four cylinders in this manner (or for that matter, two or three)? My concern is that the cylinders won't extend/retract at the same rate and if the differences are large enough one or more may bind or cause stuttering during the lift. Will I have to rely on tweaking speed controllers on each cylinder to prevent this? Or, am i worried about nothing? Should I drive them from a common valve or use a dedicated valve for each cylinder?

Thanks for the help.
Conan

Good morning,

From your description you seems to be pretty well verse with its application, from what i can gathered on your purpose application, i believe you should not have much problem with the cylinders, as to their movements. The distance is not that long as its around 50mm only, important thing to consider is to get good flow controllers with suitable cylinders and the correct valve couple with a proper regulator. But be sure you have enough air supply, yes! don't forget about the compressor! just kidding. Hope this help.

[smcmy]

Hi -

I need to make a simple lifting mechanism to raise a 30 pound, 26" x 24" part about 2". My preferred design is to connect a pneumatic cylinder to each corner of a plate. The part is loaded onto the plate for lifting. The four cylinders are above the plate and raise it into position once the part is loaded.

My question: is it advisable to use four cylinders in this manner (or for that matter, two or three)? My concern is that the cylinders won't extend/retract at the same rate and if the differences are large enough one or more may bind or cause stuttering during the lift. Will I have to rely on tweaking speed controllers on each cylinder to prevent this? Or, am i worried about nothing? Should I drive them from a common valve or use a dedicated valve for each cylinder?

Thanks for the help.
Conan

Hi,
It won't really make much difference to use 4 dedicated or 1 common valve to control the 4 pneumatic actuators. To solve this we need to maintain equal pressures and flow rates from valve to pneumatic actuator, and, because of the compressible nature of air this would be very difficult to achieve. Hydraulic's would seem like the better choice here, but for 30pounds NO.
Tweaking speed controllers would work if all other factors do not change eg: position of load from center of plate.
It may be better to use 4 guides and just 1 pneumatic actuator. If possible the it may be better is if the pneumatic actuator is mounted underneath the load.
Hope this helps.