Pneumatic buffering system

Abstract

A pneumatically buffered drive system is provided which quickly moves a movable member, such as a press safety curtain or press bolster, a predetermined length in three sequential speed stages to prevent maximum acceleration from occurring at the end of the predetermined length. The movable member is coupled to a differential pressure piston which is initially pressurized on only one side of the piston to initiate movement. After traversing approximately half the predetermined length both sides of the piston are pressurized to decelerate the piston during the member movement for approximately the next third of the predetermined length. The remaining length is traversed with the decelerating pressure being vented to positively finish the motion along the predetermined path. In vertical moving members having significant mass such as press safety curtains, a higher pressure is used to decelerate the piston than the pressure used to drive the piston. The higher decelerating pressure is required to effectively compensate for the momentum of the accelerated vertical member.