Design and Modelling of a Cartridge Pressure Amplifier

This works describes the modelling and simulation of a compact cartridge pressure amplifier for linear actuators, especially designed to fit within the rod of the piston. Hydraulic pressure amplifiers of the cylinder type are appreciated in hydraulic systems where high pressure work is needed, especially for a small part of the overall duty cycle. The use of these boosters allows the designer not to oversize the system, which will perform confining the high pressure operation only on the side of the hydraulic actuator. Starting from a previous research work on the same topic, this work proposes new designs for the cartridge amplifier to explore the influence of the control valve, which is the responsible for the delivering of the fluid to the amplifier. The new designs are discussed and then the results coming from the simulation performed with a lumped parameter model in a virtual test rig are shown. The operation of the amplifier is then applied to a more realistic duty cycle to illustrate and validate its operation.