What do you need to know to select the right air cylinder from the huge variety available in the industrial marketplace? Here is the answer.
How much force do you need to move the object you wish to move?
You’ll need to know the weight of the object. Consider what the object being moved is sliding and know that this friction is adding to the load.
Oversize the required force of the cylinder by 25% to take into account friction of the rod and piston seals within the air cylinder itself, and also allowing a safety margin as it relates to the expected load the cylinder will see.
Know your available air pressure (example: 90 PSI) and multiply that times the surface area of the piston inside the cylinder to get the theoretical output force of the cylinder.
If you multiply 3.14 x the radius – in inches -squared this equals the surface area of the piston in square inches.
Since cylinders only come in certain bore sizes, default to the standard cylinder bore that’s the next size up if none are exactly the bore diameter calculated. Note that the size of the outside of the cylinder on some types has no real bearing on what...