A new, high precision, quick response pressure regulator for active control of pneumatic vibration isolation tables

Pressure regulators are important elements in pneumatic systems. Relief-type precision pressure regulators are commonly used to control the supply pressure to actively controlled pneumatic vibration isolators. Herein, a high precision, quick response pneumatic pressure regulator is proposed. This consists of an isothermal chamber, a servo valve, a pressure sensor, a quick response laminar flow sensor (QFS), and a pressure differential sensor (PD sensor) as developed by the authors. Slight changes of pressure in the chamber can be detected by the PD sensor and are fed back to the servo valve to maintain the pressure at a desired value. The performance of this regulator was confirmed experimentally in comparison with one available commercially. The regulator was then applied to the supply pressure regulation of an actively controlled pneumatic vibration isolation table. The superior performance of the regulator is clearly shown in the experimental results, especially in terms of avoiding effects from upstream or downstream disturbances. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.