How do you calculate the force of a pneumatic cylinder?
The force of the cylinder is determined by 2 factors: Pressure and piston surface (piston diameter).
When calculating cylinder forces, it should be noted that neglecting friction changes in pressure have a linear effect on the calculation, i.e. if 10 bar pressure is applied instead of 5 bar, the force doubles.
The force, however, grows squarely to the cylinder diameter. A cylinder with a Ø 50 mm piston has 4 times as much force as a cylinder with a Ø 25 mm piston.
For example: What force does a cylinder with a diameter of 40 mm exert at 6 bar pressure (the so-called thrust force)?
In order to use the correct units of measurement in the formula, we use Mpa for the pressure. This corresponds to N/mm². We specify the dimensions in mm.
The piston diameter of the cylinder:
The theoretical force has been calculated. In practice, a value of around 5 % less has to be expected.
Thus, a cylinder with a diameter of 40 mm can exert about 716 N force at 6 bar pressure. This corresponds to a mass of about 73 kg.
What force does the same cylinder exert when we drive it back from the end position to the basic position (the so-called traction force)?
The traction force of the same cylinder is less than the thrust force, since part of the piston surface is covered by the piston rod, i.e. a piece of the surface on which no pressure can be applied is missing. The missing surface must be considered.
After factoring in a loss of approx. 5 %, we come to the following result:
The traction force of the cylinder is about 601 N, compared to the thrust force of 716 N.
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