12-6: FLUIDIC CONTROL SYSTEMS 389 12-6: FLUIDIC CONTROL SYSTEMS Fluidics uses fluid in motion without moving parts to sense, count, amplify, and control hydraulic and pneumatic functions through low pressure actuation. It receives widespread use in control because of its ability to perform in adverse environments, its relative cost, small size, and the availability of a wide range of versatile components. Many fluidic devices have counterparts in electronics, such as amplifiers, capacitors, resistors, switches, valves, proximity sensors, and transducers. Much of the terminology describing the function of components is also the same. Historically, fluidics dates back to the tum of the century to the work of L. Prandtl (1904) on wide angle defusers and Nikola Telsa on valvular conduits (1916), In the early 1930"s, Henry Coanda discovered the wall attachment phe- nomena of fluids flowing near a curved or adjacent surface. Figure 12-11 illus- trates the Coanda effect used in many fluidic devices. In the late 1950's, engineers at the Diamond Ordinance Fuse laboratory put the Coanda effect and other known Lowpressure IB / L_ Fy fe 2~ Entrainment J ie FIGURE 12-11 “Coanda effect.” phenomena to useful purposes by designing several flu elements including amplifiers and logic switching elements. Recent work in fluidics has generated a multitude of components, interface elements, and systems used in production, business offices, space vehicles, and other places where control is a primary function. While electronics and other media are used extensively to perform control functions, environmental and cost factors often predicate the use of fluidics. Fluidic systems are nonexplosive and operate satisfactorily in harsh environ- ments. They are impervious to the effects of wear commonly associated with other media such as relay switching systems, When properly maintained, vibra- tion, shock, radiation, temperature, and dirt have little effect on their reliability.12-7; OPERATING PRINCIPLES 391 ‘Supply port Laft control port —*\ \—— Right control port Left Right output port output port FIGURE 12-13: Typical wall attachment flip-flop action (courtesy of Norgren Fluidics). a puff of air at the left control port will switch the stream to the night port. The device shows no preference to direct the air stream to cither the left or right port because it is symmetrical about the splitter. Such an element is called a bistable device and will maintain either of two operating states after once being set by the control signal. By changing the symmetry slightly, the device can be made to favor one output port or the other. Switching thus requires only one control port and signal to switch the element, but this signal must be maintained to keep the element from switching back. Such a device has a bias and is commonly referred to as a monostable OR/NOR device. The wall separation effect occurs when an attached fluid jet leaves the radius of curvature, Figure 12-14 illustrates the phenomenon, As the radius is decreased to the place where the jet cannot follow the wall curvature, it separates following an angular direction somewhere between the beginning and terminal angle of the radius. By placing a control jet in the adjacent wall upstream of the point of separation, the separation angle and direction of the separating jet can be controlled and switched between more than one output port. The effect has application to several fluidic devices which modulate the supply between more than one receiver downstream of the controlled region of separation. ‘Supply jet HH Controt port Region of separation FIGURE 12-14: Wall separation effect.392 PNEUMATIC LOGIC CONTROL ste oly Vent Vent Vent “AP = 0) “AP FIGURE 12-15: Analog amplification principle (courtesy of National Fluid Power Association). In beam deflection devices, such as the analog amplifier shown in Figure 12-15, without control jet intervention, air from the supply port is directed equally to the left and right output ports through the action of the beam splitter. The pressure differential across the two output ports under these conditions is 0. If a control jet is introduced at the left control port, the jet is deflected so as to give it a bias to the right output port, thereby causing a pressure differential between the two output legs. The pressure differential across the two output ports of the device can be varied by increasing or decreasing the strength of the control jet at one of the two control ports. Jet interaction devices such as the impact modulator direct two opposing jets at each other and take the output from the impact plane region. With the two jets directed at each other, the normal impact region and output occur in chamber A. Ifa transverse jet is used to weaken the jet in chamber &, the impact region will move in that direction, causing the output to switch from chamber A to chamber B. This will usually be accompanied by an evacuation of chamber A and pressure drop at the output port caused by the siphoning action of the jet through the orifice between the two chambers, Another jet interaction device is the turbulence amplifier which is a flow mode device. It has been demonstrated that a laminar flow jet stream will flow a distance up to 100 times the diameter of the inlet nozzle without dispersing appreciably. Laminar flow fluidic devices change the operating characteristic of the stable flow pattern by changing the flow from a laminar to turbulent state. Figures 12-16a and 12-16b illustrate the operating principle of the turbulence amplifier. When laminar flow conditions prevail, the focused power jet flows in a steady parallel stream from the input tube to the receiver tube. The free distance between the two is on the order of 20 times the diameter of the inlet tube. A large proportion of the input reaches the receiver tube and constitutes an output signal. Pressures of | Ibf/in* at the input tube will result in an output of several inches of water (1 Ibf/in? equals approximately 28 in of water). When12-7: OPERATING PRINCIPLES 393 tab Receiver tube a | Laminar power jet to) Turbulent jee Control FIGURE 12-16: Turbulence amplifier operating principle (courtesy of Norgren Fluidics). the control signal is applied as in Figure 12-16b, it disperses the laminar power jet causing turbulent flow, and the pressure and signal at the output cease, Removing the control signal allows the power jet to recover and laminar flaw restores the signal at the output. The turbulence amplifier shown is a simple NOT. That is, when the control signal is off, the output is on, and when the control signal is on, the output is off. Turbulence amplifiers are usually assembled in combination on one mounting board to become part of an integrated circuit. In the vortex amplifier, the ouput flow rate and Pressure are controlled by the degree of swirl that occurs in the vortex chamber. Swirl is usually caused or affected by the control jet. One methed of using the vortex chamber shown in Figure 12-17 introduces the supply flow inward radially to the center of the Supply Control flow Supply flow flow ~~ chamber Outlier orifice orifice {a} No central flew tb) With control flow FIGURE 12-17: Vortex flow amplifier principle (courtesy of National Fluid Power Association).12-8 FLUIDIC DEVICES 395 cy NFPA symbol FIGURE 12-18: Bistable flip-flop (courtesy of Norgren Fluidics). MC Ne Ha 12-19: Pulse buttons connected to switch bistable flip- Pp. Proximity sensors operate to switch logic elements in response to the location of approaching objects. An application of the device to indexing film is illustrated in Figure 12-20. Film perforations passing under the jet interrupt the air stream. By knowing the number of perforations per frame, the number of frames can be counted by an accumulating register connected to the fluid-to- electric switch. Operation of the cone jet sensing unit, shown in Figure 12-21, is based on the increase in pressure within a convergent conic flow pattern when resistanceFluidie sensor + (interruptible-jet) ‘Output of fluldic-toelectric Film switch FIGURE 12-20: Application of interruptable jet sensor (reprinted from Compressed Air Magazine). Object Supply FIGURE 12-21: Cone jet sensor operation. to that flow is created by the presence of an object or an opposing jet stream. Flow to the signal port of the device is from within the conic flow so that contamination from surroundings cannot reach a control port through the sensor. The narrow passage of the cone jet demands dry air filtered to at least 40 p to assure maximum reliability. Supply pressures range from 2-35 Ibf/in?. Typical applications include sensing position, limit sensing, limit air gauging, and prox- imity detections. Fluidic system amplifiers are used to boost low pressure signals to higher levels necessary to drive other fluidic elements, or to act as an interface element between the fluidic logic control system and other hydraulic or pneumatic sys- tems. A simple diaphragm amplifier is shown in Figure 12-22. The cutaway view indicates how the device operates. In one mode of operation, air admitted to the supply port passes through the nozzle at low volume and escapes through to the outlet. The diaphragm is kept.open by the action of the return spring and slight air pressure exerted on the under side of the diaphragm. Admitting a control signal of sufficient strength to the larger upper side of the diaphragm closes off the supply to outlet port passage causing a high pressure output to398 PNEUMATIC LOGIC CONTROL 12-9: BASIC FLUIDIC CIRCUITS Fluidic circuits include the logic air supply, communications elements, logic elements, and interface elements. Control valves are also included if the pressure required for pilot operation of control valves can be delivered by the logic system. If the fluidic logic device such as a flip-flop drives the control valve through a booster amplifier, commonly the case for pneumatic circuits operating on shop air pressures of less than 125 Ibfvin’, the valve itself may also be included. Where a substantial power interface is required, the booster amplifier valve controlling shop air is used to pilot operate such components as high pressure air pilot operated hydraulic control valves. The high pressure interface will usually be indicated by an appropriately labeled block diagram without explanation since the operation of these components is explained elsewhere. Cylinder control is a common application assigned to fluidic logic com- ponents. An automatic cycling double acting cylinder control is shown in Figure. 12-23, Automatic cycling is achieved by having cylinder back-pressure alter- nately switch the active NOT device (right) and the OR/NOR device (left) to control the bistable flip-flop. When the system is operating and the cylinder is retracting, actuating pressure and back pressure switch both the NOT and OR/ NOR to the O1 port and no signal is impressed on the bistable flip-flop. When the cylinder has completely retracted, back pressure on the head end of the cylinder drops and the OR/NOR switches back from the O1 port to the O2 port. This, in turn, impresses a signal on the Cl control port of the bistable flip-flop switching it to the @1 port that pilot operates the three-way control booster valve to extend the cylinder. The same sequence of events occurs when the cylinder | Sa ? or | a FIGURE 12-23: Automatic cycling double-acting cylinder control.12-9: BASIC FLUIDIC CIRCUITS 399 reaches the end of the extension stroke to retract the cylinder. Automatic cycling will continue at a rate determined by the setting of the cylinder bleed out valves until the manual off-valve is closed, This switches the OR/NOR to the O1 output 80 that the last signal will be received by the left control valve from the flip-flop at the end of the extension stroke from the O2 port thereby retracting the cylinder. Figure 12-24 shows a proximity sensing circuit used to control a conveyor system that moves and fills containers. The cone jet sensor switches the NOT to the right leg stopping the conveyor when the container approaches the jet, that is, when the container is present, indicated by A. The schmitt trigger, a very sensitive switching element, is connected to a bubbler tube which senses the liquid level in the container being filled. It switches to the right leg and the conveyor moves when the container is full, indicated by C. The normally closed start button switches the back pressure sensor to the left leg when it is depressed (opened), if the additional control signal from the conveyor move interlock is not present. The OR/NOR causes the conveyor to operate and filling to cease when it switches to the right leg. It will switch and the conveyor will move, indicated by £, when no container is present, indicated by A, or if the container is full, indicated by C. That is £ = A + C. When an empty container approaches the fill station, the cone jet sensor stops the conveyor and the schmitt trigger ‘output is on the left leg. The container is filled by pushing the start button connected to the back pressure switch, which switches the bistable flip-flop to fill the container. The fill signal from the back pressure switch will be present (Senmite tigger) ton/woR E = Kec Comevor more interlock (Flip Mop button FIGURE 12-24: Proximity sensing circuit (courtesy of Corning Glass Works).