How to Choose the Right Pneumatic Cylinder

Specifying a pneumatic cylinder isn’t as hard as it might seem to be. There are a lot of tidbits of information that goes into each and every cylinder, such as mounting. Is it a clevis, a double clevis, is it a tie rod, is it an aluminum body, etc. There are a lot of different variations and there are specials. There are customized cylinders and many of our customers run into this all the time. The OEM of the machine will specialize a cylinder, and it might be something as simple as a different type of metal in the rod. It might be food grade oil in grease inside the cylinder. So, often you are able to get a functional replacement without having to go through the pains of developing every single last piece of information that might be about that cylinder. So, I’m going to give you a couple of quick ways to gather some information that you can hand over to your local IDM representative and we can go from there.

The cylinder: Is it double acting, meaning does it have two ports where air goes in one and out the other ? Or is it single acting, meaning it’s going to have a spring in the back end which is actually going to push it back in.

Operating Environment: Is it harsh conditions – such as is this out in a concrete plant, inside in the AC, washed down, or is it around food? There are a lot of different changes in a cylinder that can happen based on that.

Operating Pressure: What are you regulating your pressure down to the cylinder through the valve, etc. That gets right here to the cylinder. This is also going to have an effect on how much force is required. This is very important. Let us know what type of operating pressure you’re using.

Force: How heavy is the object you are pushing? How difficult is it? How long does it take to actually reach the full stroke? Etc. All of that is very important to us.

Operating Speed: How quickly or often within a time period do you need to cycle through the cylinder? All of this information is great and helps us give you a very quick quote and solution to your problem.

Tubing Size and Port Size

That’s it, that’s a cylinder. If you would like more information on cylinders or other pneumatic equipment please go to innovativeidm.com. Remember Innovative-IDM is Home of the Legendary Customer Experience.