Most manufacturing plants that use compressed air or that have the need to pump pressurized liquids use quick-connect couplings. Although not a major maintenance cost, the effects of improper coupling selection may cause unexpected problems in terms of productivity...
In short, a vacuum pump is a device that removes gas particles from inside a sealed container so that the air pressure falls below atmospheric pressure 14.696 psi or 1013.25 mbar ( 760 Torr). After exploring the different features associated with this technology,...
For decades, hydraulic valves have operated in more or less the same simple way: they flipped back and forth, opening first one line, and then another. Normally, one pipe was the ‘do nothing’ line, and one was the ‘do something’ line. But as our understanding of...
There’s a common phenomenon in literally 100% of hydraulic systems that simply must be taken into account, and it has the misfortune of bearing a name that makes it sound like something we should all be grinning at: hysteresis. What Is Hysteresis? Simply put, every...
Is there really such a thing as ‘good vibrations’ when you’re in an industrial setting? Perhaps somewhere, but by and large, what you want is some way to keep the vibrations at bay, away from the fragile bits and pieces. The traditional solution for this problem is...
Firestone Airstroke Actuators vs. Air Cylinders When you have a pneumatic system being used to lift, push or pull– whether it’s a scissor lift or conveyor belt take up– the default tool for the job is an air cylinder. An air cylinder is essentially a closed,...
There are a few different kinds of pneumatic fittings on the market, and choosing the right one isn’t always easy. You need to know the tubing being used, the operational air pressure, the thread type on the receiving fitting (if any), the amount of vibration the...
Lumberjacks. Miners. Search and rescue crews. What do they have in common? Well, they’re obviously some of the most hardcore people in America, but other than that, they also all work some with extreme machinery in their daily jobs. But where does a man find enough...
If you’re in an industry that involves using conveyor belts to move lots of potentially-hazardous stuff from one place to another, you’ve probably encountered that horrible moment where some piece of debris being dumped onto the belt hits just right and punctures a...
ISO — the International Organization for Standardization — releases guides for almost every conceivable area of industry on Earth. Some of these are easy to understand, others are packed into language so dense and jargon-filled that it takes an industry expert just to...