Design and Manufacturing of a Pneumatic Procedure; B.Sc. Project

August 20, 2018

Overview

My B.Sc. thesis was design and manufacturing of a pneumatic table for illustrating some concepts of pneumatic applications for instrumentation laboratory with my teammate, Eng. Yadollah Alinaghi Naini under supervision of Dr. Mohsen Shafieirad. Pneumatic systems are widely used in industry due to its safty and cleanliness, simplicity of design and control, and reliability over hydraulic and electrical systems. On the other hand, these systems sometimes do not have enough accuracy, and due to compressibility of air, it is harder to control, besides pneumatic systems are the loudest type of designs.
This project was defined in a way to illustrate different structures and sensors for measurement of air pressure and how pneumatic (/electro-pneumatic) actuators work through different test scenarios. Firstly, we desinged and simulated the scanarios by FluidSIM software. Then draw a schematic (/map) for placement of pneumatic facilities. After that, we did actuator sizing to provide suitable pneumatic equipments for the scenarios.

Familiarity with Equipments

According to Fig. 1:

1. Panel for activation of the test scenarios
2. 2 Position 5 Way Soleniod Valve, directional control valve
3. Two Finger Double Action Pneumatic Gripper, parallel gripping type, actuates via #5
4. Magnetic Linear Slide (Actuator)
5. 3 Position 5 Way Flow Control Valve, hand lever operated
6. Pneumatic Cylinder
7. Air Filter and Pressure Regulator Gauge
8. Pneumatic Cylinder, equipped with magnetic proximity sensor
9. Main Air Distribution Valve, connects to the compressor
10. T Shape Hose Tube Connector
11. Pneumatic Shut-off Valve
12. Differential Pressure Transmitter (DPL/DP-cell)

In addition to the Differential Pressure Transmitter, we had mercury pressure gauge (manometer) and piezoresistive transducer (MPX5100DP) to measure different types of pressures, including absolute pressure (relative to a perfect reference vacuum), gauge pressure (relative to ambient atmospheric pressure), and differential pressure. For MXP5100DP, we designed our PCB based on its datasheet in the laboratory. The DPL is used for measurement of differential pressure, MXP5100DP for measurement of differential pressure and absolute pressure, and mercurry gauge for measurement of gauge pressure _ and _absolute pressure if one side of tube is sealed.

Project Definition

The table is devided into two parts; the below part of the table is for pneumatic actuators and the upper part of it is for pneumatic pressure measurement equipments. 6 scenarios are defined for pneumatic pressure measurement:

1. gauge pressure of regulator gauge #1 (R1) via DP-cell
2. gauge pressure of R1 via manometer
3. gauge pressure of R1 via DP-cell and manometer
4. differential pressure of R1 and R2 via DP-cell
5. differential pressure of R1 and R2 via manometer
6. differential pressure of R1 and R2 via DP-cell and manometer

To avoid the mercury, splashed out of the tube, in abrupt mistakes, we designed a volume along the tube of manometer that is capable of collecting the mercury when it overflows.

Video

My teammate would illustrate how to activate actuators and how to measure the gauge pressure via DP-cell:

Video. 1, Simulation