5 ways to cut maintenance costs and maximise performance of your pneumatic cylinders

On the factory floor, a faulty pneumatic cylinder can derail your entire production process. A broken machine increases costs, puts you behind on your targets, and interferes with customer supply.

That’s why it’s essential to keep your pneumatic cylinders performing at their best.

In this blog, we’ll take you through the five steps you should follow to keep your pneumatic cylinders running reliably all day, every day.

What are pneumatic cylinders?

Pneumatic cylinders are the most common type of pneumatic actuator. They use air pressure to provide essential power and movement to a range of automated systems, machines, and processes that are found in industrial applications.

You’ll usually find pneumatic cylinders in automated processes within the food & beverage, pharmaceutical, material handling, process control, automotive, and transportation sectors. In these applications, their role is to deliver precise, reliable, versatile motion control.

Even though pneumatic cylinders are used in a wide variety of applications, there are some common issues that can affect their performance.

The good news is that, once you’re aware of these issues, you can factor them into your specification and implementation – and help make sure your cylinders deliver reliable performance from day one and well into the future.

Why do pneumatic cylinders fail?

There are two key reasons that pneumatic cylinders can fail to deliver the performance your system needs. In some cases, you might find that the pneumatic cylinder isn’t providing enough force for this specific application.

This can happen for a couple of different reasons:

• Incorrect specifications (or the wrong product choice) for your machine’s design and build. For example, the air pressure and cylinder size might not be properly aligned to deliver the force you need, compromising performance.

• Wear and tear after prolonged use. The seals within a cylinder might have deteriorated, leading to air leaks that can affect performance. In the worst cases, these air leaks can reduce the cylinder’s operating speed, cutting down the output force or even stalling your actuator.

In other cases, you might find that your needs have simply evolved.

If your output rate increases, your pneumatic cylinder might be exposed to higher levels of workload than you previously expected. In this case, your pneumatic cylinder will naturally wear out at a faster rate and require more maintenance and repairs.

Five steps to improving your pneumatic cylinder performance

Whatever is causing the issues with your cylinder’s performance, there are five steps that can help get your production back on track:

1. Run regular and planned servicing and maintenance. This will allow your operators to build up an understanding of the pneumatic cylinder’s performance and operating conditions. Once they have that understanding, they can take proactive action, catching issues earlier and fixing them faster. As a result, you’ll avoid disruptive and costly unexpected production downtime.

2. Clean the external parts of your pneumatic cylinder system regularly. This makes it easier to conduct visual inspections of key components like seals, reducing the chance that you’ll miss an issue.

3. Inspect the cylinder closely for signs of wear and tear. This will help you to identify early signs of any potentially damaging issues, like seal deterioration which can lead to air leakage from the system.

4. Drain air line filters regularly and check water traps to make sure everything is operating correctly.

5. Conduct regular lubrication. Make sure your cylinder, rod seal, piston seals, and running surface are lubricated often to ensure they operate effectively and protected from damage.

Simple ways to keep your pneumatic cylinder in top condition

These five simple steps can help prevent a significant amount of disruption, and wasted budget.

They’ll help to keep your pneumatic actuation system optimised, drastically reducing the chances of a preventable breakdown, part failure, or replacement.

You’ll have the peace of mind you need to focus on keeping the rest of your site running smoothly – knowing that your motion control systems are in the best possible condition.