PNEUMATIC CONTROLS

SESSION 3- FLOW CONTROL VALVES

SPEED CONTROL OF CYLINDERS
 Speed Control of Cylinders
• It is always necessary to reduce the speed of cylinder
from maximum speed based on selected size of final
control valve to the nominal speed depending on the
application
• Speed control of Pneumatic Cylinders can be
conveniently achieved by regulating the flow rate
supply or exhaust air.
• The volume flow rate of air can be controlled by using
flow control valves which can be either Two way flow
control valve or One way flow control valve
 Flow Control Valves
• One way flow control valve
is often used to achieve
independent speed control
of cylinder in the forward
and return motion. This has
a variable restrictor and a
non return valve in parallel
• Two flow control valve is
essentially a valve with
variable restrictor which
offers resistance to passage
of air in both direction.
 One Way Flow Control Valve
• This valve is also called as the Throttle Relief
Valve
• Generally used for Speed Control of Cylinder
and is installed in the working pressure line,
between the final control valve and the cylinder
ports
 One Way Flow Control Valve
• One way flow control valve has a needle and an orifice
arrangement . A Non return valve in the form of an
elastic diaphragm is secured to the bottom of the valve
orifice. The diaphragm when subjected to air pressure
from the top, seals against seat in the valve body and
prevents any direct air flow to the down stream side. The
compressed air has to necessarily pass through the flow
control valve and under goes throttling. When the flow
takes place form bottom to top, the diaphragm deflects
upwards and allows air to pass directly to the down
stream side of the valve, thus by passing the flow control
valve.
 One Way Flow Control Valve
• When Compressed air is
admitted in the direction of
throttling, [left to right] it
exerts force above the
diaphragm and holds it against
the seat. This prevents by
passing of air through the gap
between diaphragm and seat.
• Then compressed air has to
pass through the gap between
needle and orifice of the valve
which results in throttling
One Way Flow Control Valve

• When the flow takes place

in the reverse direction,
pressure exerted by the
compressed air from the
bottom of the diaphragm,
opens it up against the
seat and directly by passes
the air without undergoing
throttling
Speed Control of Cylinder
 Supply Air Throttling
Supply Air Throttling
• Supply air entering the cylinder through either of the
working ports, undergoes throttling as the non return
valve is closed in the direction of flow.
• During exhaust , the compressed air leaving the
cylinder is by passed through the non return valve
and escapes freely as it does not under go throttling
• Supply air throttling is used for single acting cylinder
and small volume cylinder
 Exhaust Air Throttling
• Supply air flows freely to the cylinder through the bypass passage
of the non return valve. The supply air does not under go any
throttling
• Exhaust air leaving the cylinder has to under go throttling as the
non return valve is closed in the return direction
• The piston is loaded between two cushions of air
• Exhaust throttling should always be used for double acting
cylinder
• Not suitable for small volume cylinders and cylinders with short
strokes as effective pressure cannot build up sufficiently.
Speed Control of cylinder
 Stick Slip Effect
• There is a limitation is achieving smooth movement of cylinder
with low speed setting of flow control valve. This results in
jerky motion of piston which is called as the stick slip effect
• When the flow control valve is set for low flow rates, it takes
considerable time for the supply air to build up to the required
pressure [corresponding to the load] behind the piston. Every
time this pressure is reached, the piston jerks in the direction of
motion which results in increase in cylinder volume. This
further results in drop in pressure in the cylinder and the piston
momentarily halts until the pressure build up takes place. This
intermittent motion is called as the Stick Slip Effect
 Quick Exhaust Valve
• In many applications especially with single acting
cylinders, it is a common practice to increase the
piston speed during retraction of the cylinder to save
the cycle time
• This is carried out by incorporating a Quick exhaust
valve.
 Quick Exhaust Valve
• The Quick exhaust valve has
essentially three ports
Supply port 1, is connected to 2
the out put of the final control
element (Directional control 1
valve). The Output port, 2 of
this valve is directly fitted on to 3
the working port of cylinder.
The exhaust port, 3 is left open
to the atmosphere
 Quick Exhaust Valve
• During forward movement of
piston, compressed air is
directly admitted behind the
piston through ports 1 and 2
Port 3 is closed due to the
supply pressure acting on the
diaphragm. Port 3 is usually
provided with a silencer to
minimise the noise due to
exhaust.
 Quick Exhaust Valve
• During return movement of
piston, exhaust air from
cylinder is directly exhausted
to atmosphere through
opening 3 (usually larger and
fitted with silencer) .Port 2 is
sealed by the diaphragm. Thus
exhaust air is not required to
pass through long and narrow
passages in the working line
and final control valve
•
Use of Quick Exhaust Valve
 Exercise 1
Liquid metal is drawn from a
smelting crucible by a
casting ladle and cast in
moulds. The raising and
lowering of the ladle is
controlled by separate
manual push buttons. The
raising and lowering speed is
separately adjustable .
Design a Pneumatic control
circuit for this application
Example 1
F=0

23%

50%
4 2
14 12

5 3
1
2
2

1 3
1 3
THANK YOU