Energy efficient use of compressed air in pneumatic drive systems for motion tasks

This paper discusses the possibilities of an energy efficient use of compressed air in pneumatic drives such as cylinders in combination with switching valves. It presents a numerical optimization realization with which an energy optimal open loop control of standard pneumatic systems with switching valves is derived. The main part of air savings results from a better usage of the energy stored in the compressed air namely the expansion energy. It is shown that savings could be done up to 85% depending on the application. The optimization results are validated with measurements and are compared to standard pneumatic control of cylinders.