Industrial automation has allowed manufacturing processes to become highly efficient and precise while improving safety. Smart hydraulic cylinders have been a large factor in this. These cylinders have revolutionized many industrial processes. Let’s explore what smart hydraulic cylinders are and how they have improved industrial processes.
What Are Smart Hydraulic Cylinders?
Smart hydraulic cylinders have a sensor integrated into their design. This delivers feedback indicating the cylinder position and speed to the control system. The feedback then facilitates automation and sequenced actions, and helps control safety parameters.
Smart hydraulic cylinders are compatible with most types of cylinders and build styles. These cylinders can incorporate the porting and mounting types required for practically any application, and they are fully customizable.
Types of Smart Cylinder Sensors
There are quite a few different smart cylinder sensor types on the market. Each of these are used in different applications for different reasons. There are four common types of smart cylinder sensor types: hall effect, LVDT, proximity switch, and redundant feedback.
- Hall Effect: used for proximity sensing, positioning, and current sensing applications
- LVDT: converts mechanical motion into signals
- Proximity Switch: used for end of stroke sensing
- Redundant Feedback: measures absolute position of hydraulic cylinders
Smart Cylinder Outputs
Much like the sensor types, there are also a few common smart cylinder outputs. These outputs allow continuous monitoring of the cylinder rod position to improve functionality. Some common smart cylinder outputs include analog, digital, CAN J1939, CAN Open, and PWM.
How Smart Hydraulic Cylinders Benefit the Industrial Industry
Improved Efficiency
Smart hydraulic cylinders optimize the use of energy and reduce the need for emergency maintenance and downtime. They also have the ability to utilize predictive maintenance and adaptive control algorithms to reduce the need for these disruptive downtimes. By reducing the need for maintenance and repairs and being able to predict when maintenance may be needed, machines are able to run longer and more efficiently without wasting time or money.
Enhanced Safety
These smart sensors provide real-time monitoring of position, speed, and other critical factors of the hydraulic cylinder. This monitoring can detect faults in the machine and process so they can be addressed before becoming dangerous. Overall, these sensors enhance the safety of the hydraulic application, keeping workers as safe as possible.
Increased Precision
The advanced control systems used in smart hydraulic cylinders enable precise control of the hydraulic cylinders of machinery. The improved control and precision of hydraulics makes your operations run smoother and allow for more accurate positioning. Not only does this make processes easier, but it also results in better products produced in a shorter time line.
Do You Need Smart Hydraulic Cylinders? Contact Aurelius Today
At Aurelius Manufacturing, we work with top brands to create smart hydraulic cylinder solutions for our customers. We are partnered with Temposonics, Rota, and Balluff to bring top-quality sensors to our custom hydraulic cylinder solutions. Our team is able to work closely with you to understand the needs of your application so we can create a custom hydraulic cylinder solution that fits your exact specifications. Additionally, our smart hydraulic cylinder sensors can be integrated with nearly any system.
Contact our team today to learn more about what we can do for you.
