Pneumatic drives are widely used in industrial applications. As the energy demand of production systems becomes more and more important, nowadays, many users favour a reduction of the general supply pressure to save energy. Nevertheless, some applications afford compact and powerful drives. To serve these demands, an energy efficient local pressure boosting is necessary. Today, linear pressure boosters based on double-piston cylinders are used to fulfil this task. The paper proposes a novel concept based on pneumatic radial piston motors. The new concept features a radial piston compressor, which is driven by a radial piston motor. The paper shows simulation data as well as a validation by experimental investigations of a working model of the new booster. Different configurations of the booster are examined for a range of driving pressures and pressure ratios. The experimental results are compared to a standard pneumatic booster subsequently.

It is known that the performance of a hydraulic system can be increased significantly by a combination of a
pump and a reservoir. As the electrical vacuum generation’s ability to compete compared to classical ejectors is
limited in this article the combination of pumps and reservoirs is applied to the vacuum technology used in
automated handling processes. Evacuation times and energy consumption of the electrical vacuum pumps are
measured. Two possible use case scenarios are the basis for investigations how a fluid reservoir influences
evacuation time and energy consumption. The results are then compared to a pneumatic ejector.

The increasing requirements on fast switching pneumatic valves, especially regarding the installation size, durability and high dynamics, demand for innovative systems. Magnetic shape memory (MSM) alloys are smart materials that can be activated by magnetic field to produce force and motion. Due to their high work-output and dynamics they are a promising alternative technology for a new generation of fast valves. This paper presents an investigation on the design process of a fast switching pneumatic valve based on MSM alloys. In particular, two valve concepts are described: a lever valve concept based on the magnetic elongation and mechanical resetting of the MSM element by a spring, and a seat valve consisting of an air-cored coil with a MSM element which opens the valve during its compression. The first valve concept is characterised by a lower dynamic behaviour compared to the second valve concept, but also by smaller power input required for actuation. Thus, different applications are addressed.

In this paper, a control algorithm for PWM based control of fast switching pneumatic solenoid valves is studied
on the basis of the measured fluid flow characteristics. The dynamic nonlinear behaviour of fast switching valves
is analysed using state-of-the-art mass flow sensors. The minimum PWM pulse width and nonlinear flow
characteristics depending on PWM pulse width and pressure difference are observed. On the basis of the
experiment data a new intelligent control algorithm based on the customized bilinear interpolation method is
developed and tested on pneumatic muscle.

The increase of system dynamic within the area of pneumatics requires sophisticated numerical methods to determine the systems’ performance. Cycle durations in the range of just a few milliseconds and below require the implementation of transient gas dynamic solvers to predict the systems behavior accurately and to save computational time. Yet, such solvers lack of accuracy for sharp edged elbows. This paper presents a hybrid approach using a one dimensional and a two dimensional finite volume Riemann-Solver. The results are compared to analytical acoustics theory and to a CFD approach using a turbulence model.