Quick Question

[HansZhou]

Well, something which I noticed while working with a pneumatics setup today was that the compressor was liable to heat up very quickly, mostly because we had a leaky setup which required repeated compressing. However, if the pneumatics tubing was to be incorporated with the rest of the robot's wiring, with components which are likely to generate a lot of heat, I was wondering if it is possible, since pV=nRT, to jack up the temperature of an actuator's surroundings to artificially enhance its pressure. This would help a lot since we are designing a pneumatics pusher which would be able to hurdle the ball, which is quite hard to do at 60 psi (in accordance to <R98>). If we either accidentally or intentionally (for a small actuator, the difference is quite noticeable) increased this pressure by increasing the temperature, would this be acceptable if we did it by accident or practical if we did this on purpose.

[MrForbes]

You might find that the regulator will do a good job of keeping the pressure at 60 psi.

We are hoping to be able to drop the pressure in the catapult system to less than 60 psi with a second regulator :)

[Daniel Bathgate]

Ah yes. Squirrel brings up a good point, we are required to use a relieving regulator. So not only would this probably be illegal (and "accidently" placing the cylinder near a stalled CIM would be both very unwise and un-GP), it simply wouldn't work.

Norgren has donated the primary pressure regulator. These are relieving regulators. Assume that you extend the cylinder or the apparatus the cylinder is attached to against a wall. Then push against the wall with your robot. That would increase the pressure in the cylinder. The increased pressure will relieve out of the regulator and the cylinder will slowly retract. This regulator has a maximum output pressure of 60psi. This regulator must be placed in-line right after the tanks to limit the pressure to all working circuits to 60psi.

Also, just to cite an actual rule, any extraneous lengths of tubing required to "accidently" route pnumatic lines near heat generating components would probably run afowl of <R01>:

Extraneous lengths of pneumatic tubing shall not be used to increase the storage capacity of the air storage system.

[Chris Fultz]

I think the heat rise you are talking about would have little impact on the system. The motors and other equipment does not get that hot (or they would burn up), and the tube is fairly thick walled for the level of air flowing thru.

And, it is not a good design practice to place something like plastic tubing near heat sources - it can melt and / or burst.