Abstract
The main objective of the study was to design a pneumatic directional control valve for controlling pneumatic drives and produce it using a rapid prototyping technique. As the basic design assumption was to achieve high performance through a high flow rate and a low pressure drop, it was necessary to determine two flow parameters: the sonic conductance and the critical pressure ratio. The flow rate of compressed air and the diameters of the pneumatic conduits and fittings are important as they affect the rate of travel of the pneumatic cylinder piston. The 3D solid model of the directional control valve, developed in a CAD program, was used to simulate and optimize the flow rate. The analysis was performed by means of ANSYS CFX, a computational flow dynamics program. The main elements of the valve, i.e., the spool and the body, were produced using the PolyJet Matrix technology. The prototype was tested experimentally to determine the nominal flow-rate, calculate the flow parameters in accordance with the ISO 6358-1989 standard and compare them with the CFD simulation data. The simulation results showed very good agreement with the measurement data. The CFD analysis of the 3D solid model enabled us to optimize the flow of compressed air through the valve. The rapid prototyping method was found to be suitable to produce a fully functional directional control valve, which was confirmed through measurements at a test stand. The attempt to combine rapid prototyping used to fabricate pneumatic directional control valves with CFD used to simulate their operation was successful. The study shows that it is possible to design and construct a fully functional directional control valve characterized by high efficiency, high performance and a small pressure loss in a very short time and at a very low cost, which makes rapid prototyping superior to conventional methods of prototype making.
Highlights
Rapid prototyping (RP) can be defined as creating, layer by layer, physical threedimensional objects from 3D computer-aided design data
They attempt to assess the degree of applicability of additive manufacturing to reconstruct other archaeological finds and indicate problems related to the application of reverse engineering and rapid prototyping
To verify and validate the simulation and experimental results concerning the 3/2 pneumatic directional control valve, it was necessary to determine the relationships between the mass flow rate qm and the pressure ratio p2 /p1
Summary
Rapid prototyping (RP) can be defined as creating, layer by layer, physical threedimensional objects from 3D computer-aided design data. Multi Jet Fusion uses fine-grained materials to produce ultra-thin layers, 80 micron in thickness Objects obtained in this way have higher density and lower porosity than those printed by selective laser sintering. The method proposed here is well-suited to develop prototypes of directional control valves for various industrial applications It helps significantly reduce costs and time required to carefully design and manufacture different types of valves. Verification of CFD simulation results obtained for 3D printed valve models, which requires comparing them with experimental data, is of crucial importance, as it allows us to discover and eliminate design errors at early stages, and, if necessary, redesign the valve before it reaches the production stage This approach to the development of pneumatic directional control valves can be viewed as innovative
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