Tatsuyuki Iwawaki, Daisuke Sasaki, Toshiro Noritsugu, and Masahiro Takaiwa

Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to develop a portable energy-saving type air supply system. A variable volume tank is developed in order to drive a pneumatic actuator with a low discharge pressure in a tank. The developed tank composed of flexible materials can store pneumatic energy by converting it to elastic energy. In this paper, the composition of the system, the structure and characteristic of a variable volume tank and experiment of driving actuator with constant and variable volume tanks are discussed. As a result, the variable volume tank can drive the actuator at a lower supply pressure than with the constant volume tank.

Keywords: pneumatic, portable air supply system, variable tank