Pneumatic components and systems are usually considered to be rather unpleasant according to their acoustic appearance especially in the area of industrial large-scale production plants. Within these applications the major part of the noise emission coincides with the outlet ports of valves where the working medium is depressurized. However, former research and development have yield constructive measures and components as mufflers reducing the absolute magnitude of the measurable sound level to a tolerable range. Regulations and legal requirements might thus be satisfied, yet the subjective perception of the sound still tends to be labeled as uncomfortable or even unbearable. These aspects are not considered within the typical metrics of the sound pressure or power level. In order to achieve objective comparisons and an absolute classification of the sound perception psychoacoustic analysis might be adduced. In this study, the correlation between fluidic and psychoacoustic parameters is investigated. The differences according to the sharpness and loudness during operation of a valve are analysed and a methodology on a possible interpretation and evaluation of the psychoacoustics is given. In detail, the dependency of pressure drop, magnitude of the volume flow through a switching valve with standard exhaust muffler on the noise characteristics is presented. Due to presented results, an enhancement of the models was required and will be discussed in this paper correlating the sharpness to the level of perceptible noise. As a conclusion, the investigation posts a proposal for a psychoacoustic benchmark of pneumatic valves leading to an advanced objective and more suitable way of evaluating noise emissions. Hence, nuanced optimization measures in early phases of development are possible.

This paper presents the Festo Motion Terminal, a new programmable valve terminal, and its technical concept. On this basis, a new type of pneumatic motion control is developed. Two main features – electronic controllable motion and energy-efficiency – are addressed that enhance pneumatic drives from sole mechanic components towards a mechatronic system. The control is an adaptive open-loop control which uses an estimated position and velocity signal of the piston. Cost-efficient integrated components and software-based functionality make this concept economic as well as flexible – essential attributes for Industry 4.0.

Pneumatic pressure boosters are widely applied in handling systems to increase the network pressure. Although they may enable a considerable energy saving for the entire pneumatic system, there is still a large potential for performance improvement. However, the boosting technologies in other domains, as the electrical DC-to-DC converters, present high efficiency. In the given study transferability of electrical DC-to-DC converters into pneumatics was investigated and the potentials of new circuits were researched. Based on the lumped parameters simulation results the most prospective concepts were identified using the three criteria: maximal pressure gain, exergy efficiency, and mass flow rate. The prototypes were implemented on a test rig to verify the simulation results and to compare them with each other.

Pneumatic systems are widespread whenever linear motion between two endpoints is required. However, mainly due to friction forces, motion control is difficult. This paper explores a different solution, based on a linear peristaltic principle, to overcome this problem. The pneumatic actuator proposed has several potential advantages over conventional ones: long strokes require little added cost, curved motion profiles are possible and friction force at low velocities presents better characteristics than the ones of conventional actuators. This paper presents a preliminary study of elementary experimental characteristics of the proposed solution. It is shown that no stick slip occurs at low velocities, whilst maintaining force capabilities similar to those of conventional actuators.