Recently a chocolate candy manufacturer in India had that very requirement for its conveyor systems. During production, the still-hot candies had to travel through cooling tunnels, which workers sometimes needed to access from either the front or back side. Not only did the candy producer require gas springs to support a 110-pound hood, it wanted to maintain a horizontal hood arrangement on the conveyor belt. And, because the entire chocolate bar production line called for 34 hoods with four industrial gas springs for each, installation and maintenance had to be short and sweet.

Inside the hood, the candy maker installed two cross-hinged sets of ACE Controls’ GS-28-350 push-type industrial gas springs to enable dual-sided opening and closing. The GS-28-350 is an ideal choice for this application, offering a maximum extension force of 562 pounds and stroke length of 13.78 inches. These durable and sealed systems are ready for installation, maintenance-free and pre-filled with pressurized nitrogen gas — important factors for a production operation totalling 136 gas springs.

Additional features and specifications include:

• A piston rod diameter of Ø0.55 inches.
• Interchangeable end fittings.
• Operating temperature range of -4 to 176°F.
• A lifetime of 100,000 full strokes — approximately twice the automotive industry requirement.

To get the proper size and fit for our gas springs, you can access our online sizing and configuration tool and enter details about your intended installation. The tool will generate interactive 2D and 3D simulations that you can rotate, tilt and zoom.

Strong, Flexible and Easy To Install

Thanks to our industrial gas springs, the confectioner found the sweet spot of high strength, flexibility and easy installation. The result: the conveyor system’s cooling tunnel hoods were positioned horizontally to the conveyor belt, and workers had the flexibility to open them from both sides.

For more information about our industrial gas springs, visit our product page.

The post Industrial Gas Springs Enable Two-Sided Support for Cooling Hoods appeared first on ACE Controls Inc..

Compact GS-19-200 gas springs have a 0.75-inch body diameter, an extension force rating up to 157 pounds and a 7.87-inch stroke length. These durable and sealed systems are ready for installation, maintenance-free and filled according to your requirements. A built-in relief valve also allows you to make additional pressure adjustments. Additional features and specifications include:

• Piston rod diameter of 0.24 inches.
• A wide operating temperature range of -4 to +176°F.
• Lifetime of approximately 32,808 feet of travel.
• Interchangeable end fittings.

You can get the proper size and fit for your industrial gas spring using our online sizing and configuration tool, which provides interactive 2D and 3D simulations that you can rotate, tilt and zoom.

Gas Springs That Fit Your Comfort Zone

Thanks to the GS-19-200, the seat maker solved the problem of building easy-to-adjust seat assemblies using a compact, yet sturdy gas spring. When a design calls for a robust gas spring in a confined space, ACE industrial gas springs will sit well with you and your customers.

For more information about our GS-19-200 industrial gas springs, visit our product page.

The post Designing More Comfortable Seats With ACE Industrial Gas Springs appeared first on ACE Controls Inc..

Recently, a gate builder asked ACE Controls for a way to address the swing problem. The solution was to add two shock absorbers as close as possible to the pivot. This arrangement created a couple of inches of deceleration near the pivot, resulting in roughly two feet of deceleration at the gate end positions. The shock absorbers also manage a high effective weight — nearly all of it being a product of the hydraulic driving force.

The shock absorber series used in this swing gate application is the ACE Controls SC650. Ideal for soft damping, these miniature shock absorbers offer an energy capacity of 650 inch-pounds per cycle and 600,000 inch-pounds per hour. With a stroke length of 1 inch, this series is available with soft-contact minimal effective weights from 24 to 800 pounds, as well as maximum effective weights from 80 to 2,400 pounds. In addition, these self-compensating units can react to changing energy conditions without adjustment.

Additional features and specifications include:

• A maintenance-free, ready-to-install design.
• An integrated positive stop.
• Impact angles up to 25 degrees when used with a side load adapter.

Thanks to these attributes, the SC650 shock absorbers have effectively decelerated the moving gate energy, which is a very small portion of the system’s overall energy. Because most of the energy is from the hydraulics, the shock absorber can be thought of as the varying velocity flow control; as the shock absorber gradually slows, the hydraulic system slowly increases flow across the relief valves as if it has servo-controlled deceleration.

In addition to driveway gates, our soft-contact miniature shock absorbers are well-suited for industrial, automation and machine engineering applications — especially when it comes to parts and materials handling. Whether you need to eliminate the effects of vibrations or twisting in your machine, absorb impacts or simply ensure aesthetically pleasing motion, our miniature shock absorbers can provide just the right amount of deceleration control to meet your needs.

For more information about our soft-contact miniature shock absorbers, visit the product page.

The post How Miniature Shock Absorbers Eliminate Unwanted Vibrations in Driveway Swing Gates appeared first on ACE Controls Inc..

Recently, Pinpoint Scientific of Bridgend, Wales, U.K. set out to develop an innovative active air monitoring and sampling system — the ImpactAir®-140. This sampler works by drawing in air at high speeds. Particles and microbes impact and stick onto an agar surface in a Petri dish, where the unit measures them as colony forming units (CFU) per cubic meter and then displays the results.

The ImpactAir-140 Slit-to-Agar microbial air sampler offers several advantages versus conventional monitoring systems such as stainless steel construction with no particle shedding, low vibrations, easy operation and higher sampling efficiency. Its most important breakthrough is a built-in system that constantly monitors and adjusts the distance between the indent and the agar surface — a factor that causes significant performance variations in other samplers.

Enabling Easy Control of the Lid

Pinpoint Scientific decided to make the ImpactAir-140 more user-friendly than previous generations of microbial air samplers. To make the lid to the Petri dish easier to operate, the company turned to a local ACE distributor, Applied Automation, to provide a motion control device. Although the distributor could have recommended industrial gas springs, the customer’s specific requirements made hydraulic dampers the optimal choice. These dampers provide a constant feed rate, combined with easy adjustability, and only have to be tapped lightly to trigger the lid to open. They also allow gentle closure without additional damping.

With the help of the ACE distributor, Pinpoint Scientific equipped its sampler with HB15-50 type hydraulic dampers. A 15-millimeter outer body diameter and 50-millimeter stroke make these components an ideal choice for easily opening and keeping the lid at the desired, 60-degree opening angle. Making adjustments at the end position is easy, and these dampers offer a compressive and extension force adjustment range from 20 to 800 Newtons.

Additional features include:

• A coated body
• Piston rods with rear-resistant surface treatment
• Long service life
• Maintenance-free and ready to install

Since the ImpactAir-140 is intended for critical laboratory and cleanroom environments, mineral oil could not be used as a damping medium. Instead, ACE engineers filled the dampers with a specially refined vegetable oil with a similar viscosity and service life. Pinpoint Scientific also engineered stainless steel sleeves to cover the outer bodies of the dampers to adhere to strict hygienic requirements.

Lids Without Limits

The ImpactAir-140 Slit-to-Agar microbial active air sampler is positioned as the new gold standard in active air monitoring and sampling. And, due to the high quality and long service life of the HB15-50 hydraulic dampers, there are no limits to how often the lid of this high high-end instrument can be opened or closed. “Working together quickly with our distributor, Applied Automation, led to the desired result for Pinpoint Scientific,” says Wyn Gordge, Area Manager for ACE Fabreeka UK.

For more information about our HB15-50 hydraulic damper, visit our product page. 

The post ACE Hydraulic Dampers Give Microbiological Sampler Users a Lift appeared first on ACE Controls Inc..

To change motion, the pilot uses a bell crank to control the sailplane’s glide angle. The angle can be from 0 to 360 degrees, although 90 and 180 degrees are most commonly used. Recently, a sailplane builder tested a bell crank that produced a challenging response curve on a graph — indicating an impact load. The curve showed that without damping, the bell crank provided high, but not constant, acceleration due to forces in the bell crank increasing as a function of linear displacement. The sailplane builder needed a damping device to restrict the angular velocity of the bell crank in order to change the required displacement over time to produce a satisfactory response curve. To achieve this displacement response, the average response should be about 0.224 miles per hour.

A Top-Flight Gas Spring for Sailplanes

To better control linear displacement, the builder installed an ACE Controls GS-28-300 push-type gas spring. This unit is part of our industrial gas spring line, which can support forces ranging from 2 to 2,923 pounds and comes with body diameters from 0.31 to 2.76 inches. The GS-28-300 has a stroke up to 11.81 inches, and the extension force rating of approximately 2,500 Newtons is more than enough to handle the sailplane builder’s requirement of 700 Newtons.

With the GS-28-300 installed into the glider structure, the bell crank can maintain an acceleration as close as possible to zero. And, the response curve is now constant without any peaks. The builder also benefits from the gas spring’s maintenance-free operation, thanks to an integrated grease chamber that reduces friction and wear and optimizes lubrication. We also provided online sizing and configuration tools to ensure a perfect-fitting unit.

Additional features include:

• Ready for installation and pre-filled with pressurized nitrogen gas.
• An integrated valve for easy adjustments.
• Ease of installation, thanks to mounting points.
• A variety of accessories.

Stable Motion for a Steady Glide

When it comes to controlling a sailplane’s acceleration and glide angle, the right gas spring can make a difference. Our industrial gas springs offer the force handling capability to help a sailplane builder’s bell crank assembly achieve the stable linear displacement required for a steady glide.

For more information about ACE Controls’ GS-28-300 industrial gas springs, visit our product page.

The post Sailplane Flies High With Industrial Gas Springs appeared first on ACE Controls Inc..

Auto Shows are an ideal platform for showing off new, exciting concepts. Automotive companies come from all over the world and leave it all out on the floor. Every concept piece brought in needs to be a showstopper.

This leads us to an automotive engineering group that reached out to their local ACE Controls distributor for assistance with completing a special project for an upcoming auto show. The special project involved the installation of gull wing doors on an SUV. The doors required 2 gas springs each to provide lift assistance.

The Project Challenges

At the time that contact was made with the ACE distributor, the concept was still changing. The weight, center of gravity, and pivot points of the doors were not finalized. There was also a time constraint, the vehicle had to ship to the show in 3 weeks. This meant the gas spring solution had to be changeable and ready to send to the customer with a very short lead time.

The Customized Solution

The ACE Controls Southeastern Michigan distributor, Exotic Automation, submitted the application parameters to ACE’s application engineering team. The agreed upon solution was to send the customer (4) GS-28-100 gas springs charged to maximum pressure along with a DE-GAS tool. These push type gas springs are part of the GS-28 industrial gas spring family with extension forces ranging from 34 lbs. to 562 lbs. The durable and sealed units are ready for installation, maintenance-free and filled with pressurized nitrogen gas. The DE-GAS tool allows you to reduce the amount of gas in the unit until you reach the ideal force needed for the application.

It’s Show Time

Once the design was finalized, the client vented out the nitrogen gas within the unit until the optimum force was achieved in each spring. The next morning at 7:00 AM, the client knocked on the door of ACE Controls and asked for a force measurement of all four gas springs. This way the client can easily place future orders for the exact springs. And the show went off without a hitch!

For your Toughest Challenges

The custom and highly time constrained nature of this project demonstrates how our team can deliver quickly and efficiently. Count on ACE to assist with all aspects of your project from concept and design through the timely delivery of parts.

For more information on push-type industrial gas springs or the DE-GAS tool, visit our product pages.

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The post Futuristic Auto Show Project Requires ACE Gas Springs appeared first on ACE Controls Inc..

As Wuhan, China became the first metropolis to confront the fast-spreading SARS-CoV-2 virus, crisis managers desperately needed equipment, including mobile X-ray machines. These devices would provide intensive care physicians with pictures of patients’ lungs quickly.

Shortly before the outbreak, medical imaging specialist Beijing Wandong Medical Technology Co., Ltd. began developing a mobile X-ray device with a beam arm that could be adjusted based on the patient’s anatomy. The machine’s design required a reliable gas spring that could support the arm and prevent it from dropping—ensuring the safety of both users and patients. Suddenly Beijing Wandong needed a large quantity of springs, and they turned to ACE to provide them quickly.

Gas Springs Save Space and Provide Support

The mobile X-ray machine weighed in at 66.1 pounds, while its beam arm weighed 22 pounds. In addition to the total weight, ACE engineers had to take into account the starting point (0 degrees) and opening angle (130 degrees) when choosing the specific gas spring.

Based on these requirements, the engineering team selected GZ-28-450 pull-type gas springs, which are part of our industrial gas spring family. GZ-28-450 gas springs have a 1.10-inch outer diameter and maximum force of 2,700 pounds at a stroke length of 17.72 inches—making them well-suited for the mobile X-ray unit’s requirements.

Not only did these gas springs reliably hold the beam arm in its final position, they also added muscle when raising and lowering the arm. In doing so, they work in an opposite way than push-type gas springs: the gas pressure in the cylinder draws the piston rod in and supports the manual force required for controlled motion when moving the arm. And no matter the stroke length, the GZ-28-450’s traction force is adjustable, thanks to its built-in relief valve.

Reliable Gas Springs Overcome a Unique Challenge

Whether during peak crisis times or the calm clinical situations afterwards, our industrial gas springs have increased the safety and user-friendliness of Wandong’s mobile X-ray units. And like our industrial gas springs, we lived up to our reputation for solving problems by delivering a critically needed product without delay.

For more information about our pull-type gas springs, download our case study.

Download the Case Study

The post Industrial Gas Springs Help Intensive Care Teams Fight COVID-19 appeared first on ACE Controls Inc..

In a seasonal business like farming, there’s only a limited amount of time to make money. Whenever critical equipment malfunctions or compromises worker safety, farmers can’t recover the lost time and money. All the components used in agriculture equipment must be engineered for reliability and safety, including components farmers don’t often think about — like gas springs.

That’s what an international manufacturer of corn harvesting equipment had in mind when it needed a device to safely support hoods in one of its corn pickers. The machine uses a series of blades to cut corn and assure proper material flow. It keeps the blades covered with individual plastic hoods. In order for farmworkers to access the blades to perform regular maintenance, the hoods must be opened and held in place. Each hood weighs 15 pounds, so a falling hood can potentially injure a worker.

The company chose an ACE Controls GS 22-250-DD user-adjustable push-type gas spring. With a stroke length of up to 9.84 inches, this industrial gas spring is well-suited to lift, lower and support hoods and lids in a variety of industrial applications. It comes ready to install, filled with pressurized nitrogen according to customer requirements to achieve the required pressure source. ACE Controls also outfits its industrial gas springs with a relief valve in case further adjustments are needed. These gas springs also offer one additional benefit that makes them perfect for corn harvesting applications: durability. That’s because the GS-22-250’s piston rod and housing are coated to prevent wear and stand up to the harsh conditions out in the field.

Gas Springs Yield Better Uptime

Thanks to the ACE Controls GS-22-250 industrial gas spring engineered to the manufacturer’s requirements, the corn harvesting machine’s hoods reliably stay open so farmworkers can safely perform routine maintenance to ensure optimal material flow. Not only can machine operators access the blades without risk of injury from the hoods, they’re also less likely to experience downtime otherwise caused by lack of maintenance. That means they can maximize revenue during harvest.

For more information about ACE Controls’ industrial gas springs, visit the product page.

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The post Harvester Manufacturer Reaps Benefits From Industrial Gas Springs appeared first on ACE Controls Inc..

However, industrial gas springs like the GS Series are appropriate for more than lifting and closing flaps. In fact, industrial gas springs can be used in winding-type applications. Recently KOHLS Maschinenbau GmbH incorporated ACE industrial gas springs into vertical taping machines used to wind coils around a large transformer.

Winding a large transformer core with resin tape comes with a challenge: The transformer’s oval legs’ right angled cross-sections can cause a drop in belt tension. The interruption undermines a flat, uniform winding where a variation by even one millimeter is unacceptable. The company needed to add an industrial gas spring to the taping machine’s brake system. By using the gas spring’s stroke path as a backup during interruptions, proper belt tension can be maintained. KOHLS chose an ACE Controls GS19-150-EE user-adjustable push-type gas spring with a stroke length range of 50 to 300 millimeters.

Based on the application requirements, ACE filled the GS19 with the right amount of pressurized nitrogen to get the desired pressure force. If the gas spring required further adjustment, the GS19 — like ACE Controls’ other industrial gas springs — comes with a built-in relief valve. KOHLS’ GS19-150-EE engineered solution now provides an extension force of 550 Newtons, and its 152-millimeter reserve travel distance maintains a constant tape tension that withstands interruptions. The result: uniform and even windings around the multi-ton transformer core, and KOHLS has optimized its transformer coil-winding process.

The successful transformer coil-winding application is a good example of how ACE Controls’ industrial gas springs combine strength, durability, sizing options and adjustability to give you an engineered solution to match your lifting, lowering or load-handling requirements.

For more information about ACE Controls’ industrial gas springs, visit www.acecontrols.com.

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The post Large Transformer Core Windings: A Gas Spring Application With A Twist appeared first on ACE Controls Inc..

The ORCHIDlift product is an all-in-one solution for everyday mobility needs. The product improves patient care by making it easier for caregivers to transfer, support, and lift the patients. Their mission is “to create and design simple and innovative solutions for the challenges millions of caregivers face every day.” This product alleviates the strain and awkward positioning needed to lift patients that are not very mobile, it also provides the support needed for a caregiver of any size and stature to lift any size patient.

The constraints faced when designing the ORCHIDlift:

• Could not require electronics or batteries
• Needed to be able to lift at least 350lbs
• Had to be compact and easy to store

The Blue Orchid Care team needed to find a product that could manually assist with the lifting and also lock in place for the transferring of patients. The product also had to be compact enough to allow for the entire system to fold away when not in use. They chose ACE Controls because of the engineering and sales support that they received from our team. They explained that ACE went above and beyond in answering all questions that they had and helping them to choose the correct product. In addition to helping to choose the right product, ACE also provides CAD drawings, installation drawings, online sizing and configuration tools, and a prototype service.

The ACE gas springs reduce the amount of force that is required by the caregiver for lifting. Two 250N gas springs were needed to provide enough power to lift 350lbs. Additionally, the design needed to have a locking feature so that the handle can lock securely in place at any angle. Gas springs also provide a smooth, controlled motion for lowering the patient.

Having the perfect fit is priceless
The main concern going into designing this feature of the product was finding a manufacturer that would be easy to work with and quickly respond to all questions and engineering issues. Working with the ACE team to find the perfect product gave Blue Orchid Care assurance and comfort knowing that their design will work perfectly.

For more information about ACE Controls’ Gas Springs, visit www.acecontrols.com

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