Gas springs are often used in many different applications and businesses. Gas springs are used in many different applications. These include overhead bins for airplanes, doors for armored vehicles, and cargo vehicles.
They are an economical option for producing force and supporting moving objects because of their simplicity. What does it mean for gas springs to work in real life? These are the essential points to help you improve your motion control system design.
How Do Gas Springs Work?
Gas springs function in a way that is similar to a standard mechanical compression Spring. They use gas cylinders instead of elastic deformation to store the potential energy. This is simply a fancy term for the fact that energy is “moved” by air pressure. These springs typically use nitrogen gas. However, this is not always true.
The piston is allowed to glide free from the cylinder. However, the energy stored in the gas when it was compressed and forced into the cylinder by forcing the piston inside is released. Gas springs are not able to control motion like their mechanical counterparts.
Gas springs are usually short in stroke. This means the spring travels a short distance. But once the stored energy is released and the spring starts expanding, the spring can exert its full force to the point where it reaches the maximum stroke length. This can generate substantial force depending on how it is applied.
Gas springs are almost always the same force. An analogy when a wire or mechanical spring is deflected its force changes.
If constructed correctly, heavy-duty gas springs are capable of producing a significant amount of force. It is not surprising that gas springs are used in stamping presses. This is because the stamping press must crush down enough to stamp forms made of solid steel and other tough metals.
Is Gas Springs And Gas Struts Are Different?
Gas springs are often interchangeable with the term “gas strut”, which is synonymous with “compression gas spring.” These devices have a few differences that you need to know and account for when you design with them.
Gas struts are similar to regular gas springs in their architecture. However, gas struts also have pressured gas and a circuit that can reduce the force as necessary. This circuit allows you to control how fast the spring travels in either direction: whether it’s going inward, outward, or in both directions. Gas struts will pull or push on an object depending on how they are designed.
Take a moment to notice the compression gas spring hinges found in many devices you use daily. These include the pistons on automobile hatchbacks and gas struts used for heavy-duty lid applications. Pushing down on the door will cause some resistance. The door closes with the latch, which holds the compressed springs in their place. The door will open again if the pressure builds up when you unlock it and pull it out from the frame.
These devices come with circuits that stop the gas strut hinges from pushing with such force and speed that they cause damage to doors or injury to people using them.