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Tips for Long Life Pneumatic Actuators
  • 16 Jun 2022

What is Pneumatic Actuator?

Pneumatic actuators are actuators working with piston and shaft mechanism.
It is generally divided into two as double-acting and single-acting.

Double-acting pneumatic actuators open and close by supplying air to the two ports in front of the actuator.

In single-acting pneumatic actuators, air is supplied to a port and opening and closing operations are performed from there. From the other port, the second movement is provided by the springs located between the cover and the piston. In this way, air consumption is saved. In addition, it ensures that the valve remains closed when electricity and air connections are cut. In this way, the safety of the system is ensured.

What parts do pneumatic actuators consist of?

Pneumatic actuators have 4 main basic parts:

Shaft: It provides our basic movement.

Stopper: It is placed on the shaft.

Piston: Provides movement with gear around the shaft.

Body: Shaft, stopper and piston are placed in the body, then the covers are mounted on both sides of the pneumatic actuator.

Points to Consider in Pneumatic Actuators

The most important issue with pneumatic actuators is the sealing elements. Since it is an air-operated system, a small wear on the sealing elements will cause your pneumatic actuators to leak air.

Another important issue is bearing materials. The friction ratio of the piston inside the body is minimized with the bearing materials. In this way, scratching of the inner body is prevented. Failure to do the necessary maintenance in case of wear of the bearing material will cause scratching of the inner body and air leakage. Likewise, in case of a deterioration or fragmentation in the o-rings, it will cause internal air leakage. This will prevent the actuator from working efficiently.

The air you supply the pneumatic actuator should be well-conditioned and clean air. Because if particles such as dust, dirt and particles enter the actuator with the air, this will cause the sealing elements of the pneumatic actuator to be scratched and cause wear. As a result, the product will lose its performance in a much shorter time than its lifetime.

It is the smooth and balanced connection of the valves that you connect to the bottom of the pneumatic actuators, especially with the intermediate connection piece. If you mount your valve off-axis under the pneumatic actuator, this will cause the pistons in the pneumatic actuator to friction with the body, and this will cause the internal parts to scratch each other faster over time. For this reason, when installing a valve on your pneumatic actuator, you should pay attention to centering the axis well.

TORK Pneumatic Actuator Features:

Our TORK pneumatic actuators are produced as rotary type and scoth yoke type. It has SIL3 and ATEX certificates. TORK pneumatic actuators have the ability to open and close to the minimum when ideal weather conditions are provided. Our smallest size is RA32 pneumatic actuator. It has a torque value of 9 Nm. Our biggest pneumatic actuator is the 350 pneumatic actuator. We can reach a maximum of 5162 N/m in double-acting pneumatic actuators.

Actuator Maintenance:

If your air quality is not good, please get support from us for improvement.
You can use our RAM series special actuators in applications with -50°C or air quality problems.
Our recommendation is to replace seals and bearings regularly, depending on the intensity of your process. After taking good care of the sealing and bedding elements of the actuators and using clean air, you can use your pneumatic actuators for many years.