EXPERIMENTAL EXAMINATION ON THE THRUST ENERGY OF SHOCK ABSORBERS FOR PNEUMATIC CYLINDERS

Shock absorbers are vital devices for high speed driving with pneumatic cylinders and it is important to select the suitable shock absorbers to use pneumatic systems without trouble. It is commonly believed that the absorbed energy by the shock absorber is the sum of kinetic energy and thrust energy, which are important parameters to set up the pneumatic system. In a typical selecting method of the shock absorber, the value of thrust energy is estimated from the value of only supply pressure. However, the selecting method has been regulated for hydraulic systems and the estimated value of thrust energy in the pneumatic systems is not approximate, because inner pressures in the pneumatic cylinder is not stable and quite different from the supply pressure. Finally there are many bad combinations of the cylinder and shock absorber in the pneumatic system.In the research, we experimentally investigate the formula for estimation of the thrust energy, which is defined in the selecting method of shock absorbers. Experimental results show that accuracy of the formula to select the shock absorber is inefficient. Additionally we examine on parameters that affect the thrust energy and compensate the formula.