Energy Saving for Water Hydraulic Pushing Cylinder in Meat Slicer

Abstract

　Water hydraulics is developed toward widening application especially in food processing systems. Water hydraulic pushing cylinder system used in meat slicer is recently paid attention by both academic and industrial researchers in Japan. Due to very fast working cycle (0.5-1 seconds per cycle corresponding to 120-60 meat slices per minute), in conventional systems, methods to make a supply pressure track a load pressure for saving energy cannot be used. Supply pressure is normally set around a constant value by a relief valve. Thus, the energy loss in such system is huge because of much surplus supply pressure. This research introduces a novel energy-saving water hydraulic pushing cylinder system in meat slicer, which uses a 2/2 flow control valve for controlling the pressure in high-pressure chamber of the cylinder and 3 On/Off valves mainly for adjusting working direction of the piston rod. This system made the supply pressure nearly equal to the load pressure. As a result, the energy consumption reduced much, the reduction is approximately 50% based on the simulation result and control performance is acceptable.