Air compression modulation

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by bmarick

you could start out gradually but then increase the air flow into the piston then you should be able to increase the pressure over time so that the vibration and rotary movement is minimized right?

Maybe, maybe not.

The rotation of the piston is not a result of fast air entry, at least that's not a major factor. The kind of load on the piston rod is the bigger factor. Vibration or jerkiness is a result of fast air flow, but maybe just reducing the inflow rate to a smaller, but fixed, value may do it. The flow control valve Vivek cites is the way to do that.

An alternative - perhaps for an experiment to see if what you're thinking really works or not - would be to get a number of solenoid valves (say six), each has one side connected to the air source, the other side through a flow control valve to the cylinder. Set the first flow control valve for a small airflow, the next more, and so on, until the sixth one which has no flow control valve atall (fastest).
Then, turn them on one at a time, but as fast as you want, like valve 1 then wait 0.1 second then valve 2, and so on. Longer delays (like 0.25 second) should be tried to see their effect.

When you figure out what happens, be sure to tell the rest of us, thanks.

Don