Customized Electric Control Cylinder for Anodizing Process

Cylinders are not only used in products like robotic arms and engines, but they are more commonly found in various manufacturing industries, where they play an indispensable role.

Last year, a customer saw our customized products and successful cases, and find us through the "Contact us" page, stating that they wanted us to help customize a cylinder for use on an aluminum anodizing production line.

Why does the anodizing process require a customized cylinder?

Aluminum products react with air to form a thin, hard layer of aluminum oxide. In industrial production, anodizing is often used to accelerate this process, forming a controllable, thick, and dense aluminum oxide film.

During anodizing, the aluminum parts need to be submerged in an electrolyte solution as an anode. After the thermal electrolysis process, extracting the workpieces becomes a challenge.

At this point, using a cylinder can easily solve the problem. Compared to manual extraction, cylinders have natural advantages in efficiency, stability, and precision. Additionally, by analyzing the working conditions and requirements, we can design a customized cylinder that meets multifunctional needs and compensates for the lack of flexibility.

Cylinder Design Process

Main Material Design

Because the aluminum anodizing process typically involves acidic media, the materials of the cylinder must have excellent corrosion resistance. Therefore, we chose 304 stainless steel for the piston rod material and treated its surface to enhance its corrosion resistance and mechanical strength. It has strong anti-corrosion properties, ensuring that it can be used for extended periods in the acidic anodizing solution without rusting.

The end caps are made of aluminum alloy, which is anodized to ensure corrosion resistance and strength meet the required standards. The use of aluminum alloy reduces the overall weight of the cylinder, making it easier to install and maintain. The barrel is also made of aluminum alloy and undergoes sandblasting treatment.

Mechanical Structure Design

Based on actual work requirements, we designed the cylinder stroke to be 600mm.

We custom-designed a stop cover for the cylinder to precisely control the piston stroke range, ensuring the piston can function normally even if the stroke is too long or too short.

The piston uses an unconventional approach. Unlike typical one-piece pistons or split pistons like those in some ISO6431 cylinders, this piston is divided into three independent parts: the main piston, the front buffer head, and the rear buffer head，and the main piston has been heat-treated to improve its hardness.

This is because the buffering method of this cylinder is different from that of conventional cylinders, and it is also designed to facilitate the installation of the electrical template on the piston to work with other control systems for performing various complex operations.

The bolts that usually connect the piston to the piston rod have been replaced with a specially made clamping head. The clamping head has internal threads and connects to the threads at the piston rod's end, allowing the split piston to be connected as a whole.

Electrical/Pneumatic Control Design

An independent pneumatic control component is designed at the rear of the cylinder, integrating a 2-position 3-way valve, a 2-position 5-way valve, the main valve block, and solenoid valves. This allows the cylinder to have both electrical and pneumatic control functions and achieve various control modes to meet multifunctional needs.

Additionally, unlike conventional cylinders that simply connect the air tube directly to the cylinder end cap, our design team specifically created connection seats for the front and rear caps and designed the internal air passages.

Three air tubes (one large and two small) connect the two connection seats, with each tube connected to different air circuits inside the connection seats, in conjunction with a pressure sensor. This setup allows the cylinder to dynamically change the connection method of the air circuits based on different pressure levels and provide feedback to the external pneumatic and electrical control components.

Furthermore, the shaft sleeve of the cylinder front cap and the end cap body are completely separated, with a small valve placed inside. This small valve automatically opens or closes based on the pressure level, connecting different air circuits. It works with the cylinder connection seat and pressure sensor for refined automatic control.

Installation Design

For the installation part, we chose TC brackets to mount the cylinder. However, unlike other standard cylinders, the cylinder's tie rods are composed of 4 long and 4 short rods, making a total of 8 tie rods. This design places higher precision requirements on the tie rod dimensions, but it can fully restrict the cylinder’s axial mechanical degrees of freedom, making the installation of this custom large-diameter cylinder more secure.

About Fokca (Fescolo)

With years of experience in the pneumatic field, Fokca (Fescolo) specializes in customizing pneumatic components for customers. Our technical team, through a deep understanding of customer requirements and extensive expertise in the pneumatic industry, provides creative solutions and is dedicated to offering tailored products and solutions.

You can explore more of our customer cases. If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us.