Thanks to the TechnoKats.

[Andy Baker]

Here are the advantages I see of using a pneumatic cylinder over a servo:

1. The cylinder gives greater force for the shift, but not too much. This can also be regulated and flow controlled for fine tuning.

2. The cylinder would shift quicker..

3. The cylinder has it's own "spring", and will slip into place easier than the servo. While the servo may need to be indexed back and forth to engage, the cylinder would simply continue to force the arm over while it is trying to find it's mesh.

4. The hardware needed for pneumatic sliding seems simpler than the servo. Although the servo's block slide design has been around for a couple of years, it took us a while to get it to its current elegant design.

Also... there are some negatives to using a pneumatic cylinder for gear switching:

1. It MAKES you use pneumatics on the machine. If you were planning on saving some weight and not using pneumatics, then you're stuck using servos.

2. The servo is a lighter weight mechanism than a cylinder, valve, and fittings involved with pneumatic swithcing.

3. The servo takes up less space.

As for the pneumatic cylinder damaging the gears by slamming the shifter back and forth... I think that the cylinder can be controlled enough so that no damage is done.

Regards,

Andy B.