Quantitative Analysis of Ambient Temperature Effects on Steptime Variations in Industrial Pneumatic Actuators

Jon Zubieta, Unai Izagirre, Luka Eciolaza

2025

Abstract

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the influence of ambient temperature on the cycle time of pneumatic actuators in industrial production environments. Sub-cycle time periods, known as Steptimes, are used to characterize the duration of individual machine stages without requiring additional sensors. Building on the concept of Mini-terms and following the IEC 60848 GRAFCET standard, Steptimes are defined as the elapsed time between the activation and deactivation of PLC-controlled steps. Although the potential impact of ambient temperature on actuator performance is often acknowledged qualitatively, few studies have addressed this effect through precise, quantitatively measured data. In this work, a detailed experimental study is conducted using a PLC-controlled system composed of four automated modules. Steptimes and ambient temperature have been continuously monitored and their effects modeled statistically. The results show a consistent inverse correlation between temperature and Steptimes, as expected. The contribution of this research work is twofold: first, the feasibility and potential of using Steptime measurements to detect subtle environmental effects in industrial assembly lines is demonstrated. Second, the impact of ambient temperature in highly automated industrial assembly lines is quantitatively measured. By modeling subtle environmental effects, deviations in Steptime can be more accurately interpreted, reducing the risk of false alarms and improving system reliability.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Zubieta J., Izagirre U. and Eciolaza L. (2025). Quantitative Analysis of Ambient Temperature Effects on Steptime Variations in Industrial Pneumatic Actuators. In Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 1: ICINCO; ISBN 978-989-758-770-2, SciTePress, pages 259-266. DOI: 10.5220/0013733600003982

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icinco25,
author={Jon Zubieta and Unai Izagirre and Luka Eciolaza},
title={Quantitative Analysis of Ambient Temperature Effects on Steptime Variations in Industrial Pneumatic Actuators},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 1: ICINCO},
year={2025},
pages={259-266},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013733600003982},
isbn={978-989-758-770-2},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 1: ICINCO
TI - Quantitative Analysis of Ambient Temperature Effects on Steptime Variations in Industrial Pneumatic Actuators
SN - 978-989-758-770-2
AU - Zubieta J.
AU - Izagirre U.
AU - Eciolaza L.
PY - 2025
SP - 259
EP - 266
DO - 10.5220/0013733600003982
PB - SciTePress