pic: In-Line Pneumatic Fittings

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by rfolea

BTW - all the solenoid valves folks use that have a center closed position are ALSO illegal under this rule (they can keep a system pressurized after venting), but no one seems to notice that ...

Closed center solenoid valves would actually probably fall under R78(A):

Any pressure vent plug must be:
A. connected to the pneumatic circuit such that, when manually operated, it will vent to the atmosphere to relieve all stored pressure in a reasonable amount of time.

Whether they're legal or not depends on if you think the air inside them constitutes "stored" pressure, "working" pressure, stored pressure, or some other kind of pressure. The pneumatic rules use several different terms when talking about pressure on the robot, so I don't think it's clear if they want the the entire system at ~0 psig with the vent open, or if they just want the tanks at ~0 psig.

In other news, the pneumatics rules are kind of arcane and vague and could really use some revising to better clarify and enforce whatever the GDC's intent behind them is. There's some hint of an intent to limit actuator speeds and unintentional overpressure from external loads on cylinders, but it'd be better if they spelled that out up front.