Are you looking for a challenge? Name one single aspect of modern life that pneumatic technology hasn’t gotten involved with. It’s almost impossible to do so because compressed air-driven equipment is used in everything from amusements to each stage of the manufacturing process and everything in between. There’s a good chance that the digital device you’re reading this on was influenced in at least some way by pneumatic gear.
Computer specialists clean parts out by blowing them with compressed air. Assembly factories use graspers and other tools to hold semiconductors. There’s literally no aspect of the industry that you can’t find at least one thing powered by compressed air working in.
If you’re looking for ways to harness the power of this gear in your own place of business, then browse the SMC Pneumatics product catalog.
To start you off on your journey, we’ve thought of a few of the more common uses you’re likely to come across:
Air Brakes
Air brakes are perhaps the most common application people think of when it comes to pneumatic technology. Buses, trucks and train cars all stop when the pressure level changes inside of a closed air circuit. While you won’t normally see consumer-grade pneumatic equipment in this field, advances that have occurred due to research into braking gear have made it into every other use case. Think about that the next time you hear a truck out on the road making that prominent whoosh noise that air brakes are well known for.
Dental Drills
Dental drills aren’t something that most people want to think about, but they’re an excellent example of pneumatic technology. Compressed air is naturally clean since it’s literally just air. You can’t risk having a leakage of anything poisonous when you’re working inside of a patient’s mouth, which has made dental drills a prime use of compressed air. Even though most people might not even like the sound that these infamous tools make, they’re actually quite safe because of their reliance on such a stable and mature type of technology. Other tools found in density and medicine also make use of compressed air, which is much safer than running them on electricity for obvious reasons.
Job Sites
Whether construction crews need a jackhammer to break up concrete or a nail gun to put in tacks, pneumatic tools are always hard at work on the job site. Jackhammers couldn’t possibly derive enough power from an electric source to do any significant amount of work, so they’re usually connected via an air hose to a compressor. Cable jetting experts have even found ways to apply pneumatic technology to running lengths of wire. Some technicians are able to shoot lines straight down long tubes, which saves a significant amount of time over the alternative. Paint sprayers and other similar tools also rely on compressed air to get the job done. It’s likely that technologists are coming up with new and radically different pneumatic solutions to problems as you’re reading this, so there might be many new options in the near future.
Workshops
Pneumatic control valve actuators convert compressed air into motion. You can find devices that produce either rotary or linear motion, depending on what you need. This makes them perfect for any application where you need to run linkage or generate a vacuum. Workshops that need to clamp objects down automatically might use a combination of both types of motion to get the job done. Grippers are often used to grasp and drop certain objects along an assembly line. These parts can hold onto objects from both inside and outside positions. As a result, they’ve become extremely popular with those who want to make sure that everything runs as efficiently as possible.
Mobile Equipment
While you don’t normally see steam locomotives any longer, they were widely used before diesel and electrics took over. However, you can’t use them in mines since they pose a risk of explosion. Therefore compressed air-driven locomotives were long used to haul trains in mines. Today there are dozens of pieces of mobile equipment that continue to use compressed air somewhere in their workflow. Some devices use an air cylinder mounted on a vehicle that can otherwise move under its own power for convenience sake. Engineers continue to design countless types of compressed-air engines.
Finding Gear for Your Company’s Own Particular Uses
There are just as many uses of pneumatic equipment as there are companies on the face of the planet. Technicians have found pneumatics to be an excellent way of powering amusement park rides, for instance, since compressed air is completely clean and can be used around children. Even things like roller coasters are often powered at least in part by air in some way. For that matter, some technologists have invented whimsical tools to harness the power of compressed air to sling vegetables around. It seems like you can’t even look at potatoes in the grocery store without focusing on compressed air-driven equipment!
Regardless of what you need this kind of equipment for, SMC Pneumatics always has something in stock that will meet your firm’s requirements and budget. Whether you run a larger enterprise-level company or represent a small or medium-sized business, there’s something that’s just right for your operations. No job is too big or too small for our suppliers.
Contact us online today and speak with one of our experienced experts. They’ll be glad to answer any questions you have, and they can point you in the right direction when it comes to finding applications that solve your company’s problems.