ABSTRACT
The air with certain pressure in a pneumatic cylinder is usually exhausted into the atmosphere after work process. It is of significant that the air energy can be saved and re-used. In this paper, the constitution of an exhausted-air reclaiming system for pneumatic cylinders is studied. To find the possible influence on the cylinder work process, the effect of the
system on the cylinder velocity characteristics is also researched and different control switch points are tested. Experimental results show that attaching a reclaiming device would not cause bad influence on the velocity stability if the switch point could be properly controlled. Experiments also indicate that the switch control differential pressure ΔPsw
varies with Pc in the receiver and the supply pressure Ps would affect the velocity stability of cylinders. Therefore to reclaim more energy and make less influence on the cylinder velocity characteristics, the suitable differential pressure ΔPsw and switching-point are also tested and suggested.