Hydraulic and

Pneumatic Systems
Design

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 Course Content
 3. Hydraulic Circuits [5
Hrs.]
3.1 Reciprocating, quick return, sequencing,
synchronizing circuits
3.2 Accumulator circuits
3.3 Industrial circuits
3.4 Hydraulic milling machine
3.5 Grinding, planning, copying
3.6 Forklift, earth mover circuit
3.7 Design and selection of components,
3.8 Safety and emergency mandrels
3.9 Example (Design Analysis: For a design re-
2
quirement)
 Hydraulic Circuits
 A hydraulic circuit is a group of components
such as pumps, actuators, control valves,
conductors and fittings arranged to perform
useful work.
 Important considerations in designing a hy-
draulic circuit:
Safety of machine and personnel in the
event of power failures.
Performance of given operation with mini-
mum losses.
Cost of the component used in the circuit.

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Control of a Single-Act-
ing Hy-
draulic Cylinder
 Control of a single-acting, spring
return cylinder using a three-way
two-position manually actuated,
spring offset direction-control
valve (DCV).
 The spring in the rod end of the
cylinder retracts the piston as the
oil from the blank end drains
back into the tank.
 When the valve is manually actu-
ated into its next position, pump
flow extends the cylinder.
 After full extension, pump flow
goes through the relief valve.
 Deactivation of the DCV allows
the cylinder to retract as the DCV
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shifts into its spring offset mode.
 Acting Hydraulic
Cylinder
 When the 4/3 valve is in its neutral posi-
tion (tandem design), the cylinder is hy-
draulically locked and the pump is un-
loaded back to the tank.
 When the 4/3 valve is actuated into the
flow path, the cylinder is extended
against its load as oil flows from port P
through port A. Oil in the rod end of the
cylinder is free to flow back to the tank
through the four-way valve from port B
through portT.
 When the 4/3 valve is actuated into the
right-envelope configuration, the cylin-
der retracts as oil flows from port P
through port B. Oil in the blank end is re-
turned to the tank via the flow path from
port A to port T.

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Control of a Double-Acting
Hydraulic Cylinder

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Cylinder Cir-
cuit
 Figure shows a regenerative circuit that is used
to speed up the extending speed of a double-act-
ing cylinder.
 Pipelines to both ends of the hydraulic cylinder
are connected in parallel and one of the ports of
the 4/3 valve is blocked by simply screwing a
thread plug into the port opening.
 During retraction stroke, the 4/3 valve is config-
ured to the right envelope. During this stroke,
the pump flow bypasses the DCV and enters the
rod end of the cylinder. Oil from the blank end
then drains back to the tank through the DCV.
 When the DCV is shifted in to its left-envelope
configuration, the cylinder extends
 The speed of extension is greater than that for a
regular double-acting cylinder because the flow
from the rod end regenerates with the pump flow
to provide a total flow rate .

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Regenerative Cylinder
Circuit

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 Expression for the Cylinder Ex-
tending Speed
 Total flow rate QT entering the blank end of the
cylinder is given by

 Where
 Qp = pump flow rate and
 Qr = regenerative flow or flow from the rod end. Hence

 But the total flow rate acting on the blank end is

given by

 Similarly, the flow rate from the rod end is given by

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 Expression for the Cylinder
Extending Speed
 So pump flow rate is

 Extending speed of the piston is given as

 Thus, a small area provides a large extending speed. The

extending speed can be greater than the retracting speed
if the rod area is made smaller. The retraction speed is
given by

 Ratio of extending and retracting speed is given as

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 Pump-Unloading Circuit
 The unloading valve opens when
the cylinder reaches the end of its
extension stroke because the
check valve keeps high-pressure
oil in the pilot line of the unloading
valve.
 When the DCV is shifted to retract
the cylinder, the motion of the pis-
ton reduces the pressure in the pi-
lot line of the unloading valve. This
resets the unloading valve until
the cylinder is fully retracted, at
which point the unloading valve
unloads the pump. Thus, the un-
loading valve unloads the pump at
the ends of the extending and re-
traction strokes as well as in the 12
spring-centered position of the
 Double-Pump Hydraulic
System
 Circuit that uses a high-pressure, low-flow pump in conjunction
with a low-pressure, high-flow pump.
 A typical application is a sheet metal punch press in which the
hydraulic cylinder must extend rapidly over a great distance with
low-pressure but high-flow requirements. This occurs under no
load.
 However during the punching operation for short motion, the
pressure requirements are high, but the cylinder travel is small
and thus the flow requirements are low.
 When the punching operation begins, the increased pressure
opens the unloading valve to unload the low-pressure pump. The
purpose of relief valve is to protect the high-pressure pump from
over pressure at the end of cylinder stroke and when the DCV is in
its spring-centered mode.
 The check valve protects the low-pressure pump from high pres-
sure, which occurs during punching operation, at the ends of the
cylinder stroke and when the DCV is in its spring-centered mode.
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Double-Pump Hydraulic
System

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15
tem

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Double-Pump Hydraulic Sys-
tem

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Double-Pump Hydraulic Sys-
tem

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Double-Pump Hydraulic Sys-
tem

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Double-Pump Hydraulic
System

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 Counterbalance Valve Applica-
tion
 Applied to create a back pressure or cushioning pressure on the un-
derside of a vertically moving piston to prevent the suspended load
from free falling because of gravity while it is still being lowered.
 Valve operation (lowering)
 The pressure setting on the counterbalance valve is set slightly
higher than the pressure required to prevent the load from free
falling. Due to this back pressure in line A, the actuator piston
must force down when the load is being lowered. This causes the
pressure in line A to increase, which raises the spring-opposed
spool, thus providing a flow path to discharge the exhaust flow
from line A to the DCV and then to the tank. The spring-controlled
discharge orifice maintains back pressure in line A during the en-
tire downward piston stroke.
 Valve operation (lifting)
 As the valve is normally closed, flow in the reverse direction (from
port b to port a) cannot occur without a reverse free-flow check
valve. When the load is raised again, the internal check valve
opens to permit flow for the retraction of the actuator.
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Counterbalance Valve
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 Hydraulic Cylinder Sequencing
Circuit
 Hydraulic cylinders can be operated sequentially using
a sequence valve.
 Sequence valves are used to sequence the operation of
two double-acting cylinders. When the DCV is actuated
to its right-envelope mode, the bending cylinder (B) re-
tracts fully and then the clamp cylinder (A) retracts.
 This sequence of cylinder operation is controlled by se-
quence valves. This hydraulic circuit can be used in a
production operation such as drilling. Cylinder A is used
as a clamp cylinder and cylinder B as a drill cylinder.
Cylinder A extends and clamps a work piece. Then
cylinder B extends to drive a spindle to drill a hole.
Cylinder B retracts the drill spindle and then cylinder A
retracts to release the work piece for

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Automatic Cylinder Recipro-
cating System
 Produces continuous reciprocation of a double-acting
cylinder using two sequence valves.
 Each sequence valve senses the completion of stroke
by the corresponding build-up pressure. Each check
valve and the corresponding pilot line prevent the shift-
ing of the four-way valve until the particular stroke of
the cylinder is completed.
 The check valves are needed to allow pilot oil to leave
either end of the DCV while the pilot pressure is applied
to the opposite end. This permits the spool of the DCV
to shift as required.

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Sequencing cir-
cuit 27
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 Locked Cylinder Using Pilot
Check Valves
 A check valve blocks flow in one di-
rection but allows free flow in the
opposite direction. A pilot-operated
check valve permits flow in the
normally blocked opposite direction
when pilot pressure is applied at
the pilot pressure port of the valve.
 Pilot-operated check valves are
used to lock the cylinder, so that its
piston cannot be moved by an ex-
ternal force. The cylinder can be
extended and retracted by the DCV.
If regular check valves are used,
the cylinder could not extend or re-
tract. External force acting on the
piston rod does not move the pis-
ton in either direction thus locking
the cylinder.
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 Cylinder Synchronizing Cir-
cuits
 In industry, there are instances when a large mass must be
moved, and it is not feasible to move it with just one cylinder.
In such cases two or more cylinders use to prevent a moment
or moments that might distort and damage the load.
 For example, in press used for molding and shearing parts,
the platen used is very heavy. If the platen is several meter
wide, it has to be of very heavy construction to prevent the
damage when it is pressed down by a single cylinder in the
middle. It can be designed with less material if it is pressed
down with two or more cylinders. These cylinders must be
synchronized. There are two ways that can be used to syn-
chronize cylinders: Parallel and series.
 For two cylinders to be synchronized, the piston area of cylin-
der 2 must be equal to the difference between the areas of
piston and rod for cylinder 1. Thus, applying the continuity
equation. 38

 Cylinders in Paral-
lel
 Figure shows a hy-
draulic circuit in which
two cylinders are ar-
ranged in parallel.
When the two cylinders
are identical, the loads
on the cylinders are
identical, and then ex-
tension and retraction
are synchronized.
 If the loads are not
identical, the cylinder
with smaller load ex-
tends first. Thus, the
two cylinders are not
synchronized.
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 Cylinders in Se-
ries
 During the extending
stroke of cylinders,
fluid from the pump is
delivered to the blank
end of cylinder 1. As
cylinder 1 extends,
fluid from its rod end
is delivered to the
blank end of cylinder
2 causing the exten-
sion of cylinder 2. As
cylinder 2 extends,
fluid from its rod end
reaches the tank.

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Cylinders in Se-
ries

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Cylinders in Se-
ries

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