Using Dedicated Software for Developing Electronic Devices in Designing Pneumatic Drives

Abstract

A possible approach to overcoming the technological complexity of designing and manufacturing fluidics control units is shown. Information on the potential for expanding the possibility of applying fluid logic elements for industrial pneumatic controls components is presented. In particular, results from comparing the response speed and levels of power consumed by a fluidic control system and by similar systems on the basis of membrane-and-piston logic are given, from which a conclusion regarding the prospects of using fluid logic elements can be drawn. Information on a comparative service life of electromagnetic relays and membrane amplifiers is given. The article describes a method for using a simulator of general-purpose electronic systems with an open source code for designing and checking the operation of basic circuit diagrams of pneumatic control systems involving fluid logic elements. The LTSpice system was adopted as the simulator. The possibility of using fluid logic elements as an alternative to conventional contact-relay and membrane-and-piston devices is shown taking the pneumatic drive with two power cylinders as an example. The process of designing a logic control device based on fluid logic elements, including the construction of logic elements’ equivalent models and development of the complete circuit diagram is described. The construction of equivalent models is shown taking as an example a power cylinder and one of logic elements. Certain simplifications of the equivalent models in comparison with their physical prototypes are selected and substantiated. For comparison, the pneumatic drive schemes implemented using the conventional pneumatic devices and using the equivalent models of fluid logic elements are presented. The specific feature of plotting the cyclogram in the selected simulator is described. The fluidic equipment features limiting its application field in industrial pneumatic controls are considered, and the ways for coping with them are shown. Possible lines for further improvement of the computer-aided method for design of control systems and development of fluidics components from the point of view of their applications in industrial pneumatic drives are suggested.