Displacement Control of Pneumatic Actuator Equipped with PLC and Proximity Sensors

A pneumatic system was proposed to evaluate displacement accuracy of the pneumatic actuator without external load and to analyze capability of integration of the proposed valve system. The proposed pneumatic system consisted of a combination of pneumatic valves, two proximity sensors, and a programmable logic controller(PLC). The position controller is based on the PLC controller connected with the proximity sensors. Displacement accuracy of the pneumatic cylinder stroke was tested by varying air pressures of the supply and discharge-side and strokes of the pneumatic cylinder. The displacement accuracy of the pneumatic cylinder stroke increased as the supply and discharge side of air pressure increased at the stroke length of 133mm. Also the displacement accuracy increased as the stroke length increased with a fixed supply and discharge side of air pressure of the pneumatic cylinder as 3.5 and 4.5kg/cm2, respectively. The most accurate displacement of the pneumatic cylinder(i.e., standard deviation of 0.01mm) was obtained at the supply and discharge side of air pressure of 4.0 and 5.0kg/cm2, respectively, and strokes of 170 and 190 mm among arbitrarily selected supply and discharge side air pressures and strokes. KCI Citation Count: 2