Study of a Self-Contained Electro-Hydraulic Cylinder Drive

Abstract

Self-contained electro-hydraulic cylinders that can be powered just by an electrical wire will be popular in the coming years. Combining electrical-drives and hydraulic cylin- ders exploits some excellent properties of these two technologies and enables flexible implementation. To fully benefit from such a drive solution, there is the need to develop electro-hydraulic cylinders capable of operating independently as opposed to standard hydraulic systems that are connected to a central power supply. Therefore, this paper presents a numerical investigation of a self-contained electro-hydraulic cylinder with passive load- holding capability. The corresponding dynamic model is proposed and used to predict the system behavior with a view to future implementation. The simulations show the proposed drive guar- antees proper functioning in four-quadrant operations.