Air cylinders resemble any other cylinder in steam engine or cylinder in hydraulic circuit. Air cylinders are called actuators or motors. Air Cylinder is a device, which converts pneumatic power in to respired Mechanical power by reducing the pressure of the compressed air to atmospheric pressure.
The advantage of air cylinder is that it cannot be over loaded. It simply stalls when the cylinder is over loaded.
The essential parts are of Air Cylinder
1. Cylinder tube
2. Piston
3. Piston rod
4. Air inlet
5. Air outlet
Classification of Air Cylinder
1. According to motion obtained
a. Rotating b. Non rotating
2. According to operating loads
a. Light duty b. Medium duty
c. Heavy duty
3. According to number of pressure faces of piston
a. Single acting b. Double acting
4. According to the piston of arrangement
a. Tanden b. Duplex
c. Double ended d. air cushion
e. Multi position cylinder
f. Impact cylinder
g. Cable cylinder
5. According to mounting of cylinder
a. Centre line mounting
b. Rod end flange mounting
c. Trunnion mounting
d. Hinged mounting
e. Horizontal pedestal mounting
f. Rabbetted mounting
6. According to construction
a. Piston type b. Diaphram type
