Design of pneumatic system for vegetable cutter

Waleed Fareed Atta Jouda

120212042

Dr. Taleb Arryes

Islamic university of Gaza

Introduction

Vegetable cutting take a lot of man power in doing manually time consuming, so is to reduce the
man power, time consumption during the vegetable processing and other food processing a
pneumatic vegetable cutter was designed.

Since pneumatic systems has quick response, availability, cheap, clean to use in food industry a
pneumatic system was chosen.

Main body

In this project, number of vegetables can be cut into the pieces when the cover of the machine is
opened This type of system is very useful in bulk food processing.

Components of Circuit

1. FRL
FRL filter-regulator-lubricator as its name indict its used to filter the inlet Air, regulate
The pressure and lubricate the components of the system.

2. 4/2 ways directional control valve

To control the direction of air flow and moving direction of the piston.

3. Double acting cylinder

To control moving of the cylinder in two directions and transfer air pressure into force
Required to push and cut vegetables.

4. Silencer
To reduce noise of air and release excess air

5. Air pressure source/ compressor.

Air pressure source used in case there is a pneumatic system in place, compressor is
needed if there is no air pressure source to provide pressure and flow to the system.

6. Air receiver
Air reservoir that used to handle the transient demand
 7. Push button (NO)
To send the signal to the solenoid in the direction control valve

8. Relay

Circuit function

Initially compressor supplies the air at certain pressure to the solenoid valve. when the cover of
the machine is closed. The solenoid valve is used to control the direction of flow of air to the
pneumatic cylinder. This pneumatic cylinder actuates the piston due to high pressure of air. At
the end of the piston rod vegetable cutting knife is fitted. So, the reciprocating motion of piston
gives cutting action on the vegetable which are placed on the table. Then the flow direction is
reversed when the cover is opened by the return spring of the valve. So, this will actuate the
piston rod to retard position as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

Figure 1 pneumatic circuit

Figure 2 ladder diagram

Sizing of components

1. Cylinder
To choose the right cylinder the load must be specified cutting vegetables doesn’t require excess
force, so assume the required force is 300 N

F 300 N 2
A= = =600 mm
P 0.5 Mpa

D=
4A
π
=
√ √
4 ×600
π
=27.7 mm

There is no bore size of 27.7 so chose next size 32 mm (due to iso 15552)
With stroke of 500mm the volume of the cylinder is

( )
2
32 × π
V = AL= × 300 ×10−9=0.000241274 m3
4

Assuming the cylinder velocity needed is 0.2m/sec

So, the time needed to fully extend the rod is 2.5 sec

so, the rate of consumption of the pneumatic system is

V 0.000241274
Qr= = =0.00009650973 m3 / sec
t 2.5

In m3 /min Qr=0.00009650973 ×60=0.005790584 m /min

3
 2. Air receiver
To size the air receiver requires taking into account some parameters such as system
pressure and flow rate requirements compressor output capability.

Assuming the air receiver must supply air for 10 min before the compressor start up
Volume of air receiver is
101t ( Qr−Qc ) 10 ( 0.005790584−0 )
Vr= =101 × =0.0579 m3
pmax− pmin 505−404
3. Air source
Assume pressure of air source is 5 bar since its common value and to reduce complicity of system
sizing

Air capacity rating of compressor

2∗p 2
∗T 1
p1
Q 1=Q
T2

P2 =6 bar (absolute)
P1 =1 bar
T1 = 25+272=297 kelvin
T2=32+272=304 kelvin
Q2=0.005790584 m 3 /min

0.005790584∗6
∗297
1 3
Q 1= =0.03394 m / min
304
The compressor must receive atmospheric air at rate of 0.03394 m^3/min in order to deliver air at
5 bar 32 degree with flow of 0.005790584m^3/min

BOQ

Table 1 BOQ

Part name Quantity Description

FRL 1
4/2 ways directional control valve 1 Solenoid with return spring
Double acting cylinder 1
Silencer 1
Push button (NO) 1
Relay 1
Air pressure source/ compressor 1
Discussion and Conclusion

The circuit shown in Figure 1 works in the needed way to achieve the force and movement
needed but since the force is assumed and need experiment to have accurate value the pressure needed is
4.2 bar to achieve the process but the air source used is 5 bar, a double acting cylinder used to control
return of the return speed but a single acting can be used with a return spring the cylinder has a bore
diameter of 32 mm to achieve the force needed and it can produce force value of 402N which is higher
than the force needed by 1.34 times. .

References
Esposito, A. (2014). Fluid Power with Applications. PEARSON.