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Imagining a use for double acting cylinders - China Pneumatic Air Cylinders - Automatic Sliding Doo by airbru airbru
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Imagining a use for double acting cylinders - China Pneumatic Air Cylinders - Automatic Sliding Doo by AIRBRU AIRBRU
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Article Posted: 07/07/2012 |
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Imagining a use for double acting cylinders - China Pneumatic Air Cylinders - Automatic Sliding Doo |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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When I was in high school, I spent some time on the technical crews of a few of our theatre productions. At the beginning of my firstyear of classes there, a several-years-long renovation of theschool s performing arts facilities was completed, which meantthat suddenly we had access to a world-class theatre in which toperform. The theatre came complete with two balconies, a band pitelevator and a fly system that could compete with a lot ofprofessional facilities. A fly system is the rigging from which thestage lights, curtains and in some cases props and sets are hung.They can be raised and lowered by ropes that run down the length ofone of the theatre s walls, and they re operated by a fly crewduring performances. Thinking about my time working the fliesbrings double acting cylinders to mind. Double acting cylinder image courtesy of Clippard . This may come as a surprise to you, but the backstage area in atheatre can be a little dangerous, and the safety of the workingarea depends in large part on the competence of the people withtheir hands on the fly ropes. It s not hard to understand this ifyou consider that a given light fixture can weigh 20 pounds or so,and it s not uncommon for 20 or so of them to be affixed to asingle rail during a performance. If the hangings were counterweighed improperly, or if a stagehand mishandled therigging, all of that weight could come crashing down on top ofactors, props and scenery. And let s not even get started on thepotential for rope burns. A safe, well-run performance has to beprecise and meticulously planned. I can remember thinking on morethan one occasion how much easier things might have been if theycould automate, or at least mechanize, all of those backstageprocesses. Image courtesy of Humphrey Products. I thought of double acting cylinders, not because of their realpracticality in this kind of situation, but because they accomplishthe same purpose as a fly suspension rig. Just for the sake ofdemonstration, let s review what double acting cylinders are andwhat they do. Image courtesy of Parker Hannifin Pneumatics . Double acting cylinders can be pneumatic (powered by compressedair) or hydraulic (powered by compressed liquid). For the sake ofbrevity, we ll stick with pneumatic cylinders in our example. Whenpressurized air is forced into one of the cylinder s intake portswith sufficient force, it causes the piston in the cylinder tomove, which causes the cylinder rod to move, which causes whateveris attached to the cylinder rod to move. Observe: Diagram of a double acting cylinder. What makes this kind of cylinder a double acting cylinder is thatthere s another intake/outtake port on the other side of thepiston. Pressurized air controlled by another source issimultaneously directed into the cylinder from both directions, andthe differential pressure influences the positioning of the piston. Changes in pressure influence rod position. If the pressure on the left side of the piston was relieved, and ifthe pressure on the right side were increased, the piston wouldmove in the other direction, in turn moving the cylinder rod andwhatever load is attached to it. I can t help thinking that thismodel would have been ideal for the fly operation in the theatre(I m aware of the obvious reasons why it really isn t, and I llget to those). Image courtesy of Cylinders and Valves, Inc . What s great about this design is that the movement of theattached load can be carefully and precisely controlled because ofthe variable pressures that can be applied on either end of thepiston. If the pressure on one end is gradually decreased while thepressure on the other end is gradually increased, the movement ofthe load could be slow and fluid. A fly system is a system ofweights and counter weights; depending on how much is hung from agiven rail, it s counter-weighted so that it s easier to manage.If it were possible to rig up an enormous double acting cylinderinstead of the rope system, the right balance of pressurized aircould be used to position the load, eliminating the need forcounter weights, guaranteeing fluidity of motion and taking ropeburns out of the equation. Unfortunately, this is nothing but a pipe dream (or maybe cylinderdream). In reality, air cylinders typically don t get much largerthan a few feet in length, and in a lot of cases they can beshorter than one foot. They re used for the positioning of smallcomponents in equipment, in robotics, in manufacturing and in alarge variety of other contexts. This isn t to say that even smallair cylinders aren t capable of generating considerable force ofmotion, but I doubt that it would be possible to create a doubleacting cylinder large enough for the purposes of raising andlowering things backstage. Despite this disappointing reality,double acting cylinders play an undeniably important role inindustry, and that s not going to change. If you want to do business online, please click to visit our site. Our site provides a lot of products about China Pneumatic Air Cylinders and China Pneumatic Air Cylinders. Why not go? The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Pneumatic Air Cylinders , Automatic Sliding Door Parts, and more. For more , please visit Pneumatic Solenoid Valves today!
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