ISO 15552 Pneumatic Cylinders Guide

In pneumatic fluid circuits, the compressed air power is transferred into a linear movement and force by a pneumatic cylinder. In their simplest form, a pneumatic cylinder consists of a movable element such as a piston with a piston rod contained within a cylinder body. This type of cylinder construction is known as a cylinder with a piston-rod, other types of cylinders are available such as rodless cylinders, swivel cylinders, stopper cylinders and cylinders with drives.

Why Have Cylinders To An ISO Standard?

There are many different manufacturers of pneumatic cylinders throughout the world each competing against each other to sell more pneumatic cylinders than their competitors. Having lots of pneumatic manufacturers is great for the industry offering a wide selection of different components and price ranges to select.

If each of these manufacturers created their own cylinder type with its own dimensions, mounting and connection methods, there would be many different types on the market none of which would be interchangeable with each other. This is great for the manufacturers as end-users would need to purchase a certain type of cylinder for a spare, however not so great when or if a cylinder is no longer available.

International standards were created to establish a set of metrics each manufacturer could work too for basic measurements and sizes for both the cylinders and their mounting accessories and components. There are three types of standard cylinders commonly found; ISO 6432, ISO 15552 and ISO 21287.

• ISO 6432 Round body ISO Cylinder
• ISO 15552 Standard Cylinder
• ISO 21287 Compact Cylinder

The standards provide basic dimensions for the cylinder type and the optional mounting accessories and attachments allowing users to interchange between manufacturers potentially.

What Is An ISO 15552 Pneumatic Cylinder?

ISO 15552 cylinders are one of the most commonly supplied cylinders in the world with both users and manufacturers seeing the benefits of the design. ISO 15552 cylinders originally consisted of a piston and piston-rod contained with a cylindrical body, although newer designs now have an extruded profile shape, the extruded profile allows for mounting of accessories and attachments such as cylinder position switches. The ISO 15552 standard applies to cylinders with a maximum rated pressure of 10bar or 1000 kPA.

• ISO 15552:2018 Latest Edition
• ISO 15552:2018 Replaces ISO 6431, DIN ISO 6431, VDMA 24 562, NF E 49 003.1 and UNI 10290
• For cylinders with detachable mountings
• Maximum rated pressure of 10bar/ 1000 kPA

ISO 15552:2018 is the latest edition for these Standard Cylinders and have replaced the now-withdrawn standards ISO 6431, DIN ISO 6431, VDMA 24 562, NF E 49 003.1 and UNI 10290. International standards are reviewed every five years with both manufacturers and industry bodies being consulted before release. ISO 6431 was first released as ISO 6431:1983 and was eventually withdrawn and replaced by ISO 15552 in 1999.

ISO 15552 cylinders are sometimes referred to as tie-rod cylinders because early designs utilised tie-rods running down the cylinder body to fix the end caps in place. Although the newer designs of an ISO 15552 cylinder now has an extruded body they are still commonly referred to as tie-rod cylinders.

ISO 15552 standard is applicable for pneumatic cylinders with a piston bore sizes of 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 63mm, 80mm, 100mm, 125mm, 160mm, 200mm, 250mm and 320mm, the ISO 15552 standard also provides nominal strokes from the recommended values given in ISO 4393, although most manufacturers will also provide custom stroke lengths.

Cylinders Sizes

ISO 15552 lists the following piston bore sizes; 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 63mm, 80mm, 100mm, 125mm, 160mm, 200mm, 250mm and 320mm

ISO 15552 standard utilises the nominal stroke lengths from ISO 4393.

Direction of Movement

ISO 15552 pneumatic cylinders are available in both single and double acting versions; single acting cylinders only require air for movement in one direction and a mechanical spring for the return stroke, whereas a double acting cylinder requires air for both directions of movement.

Cushioning

ISO 15552 pneumatic cylinders have different types of cushioning technology available such as mechanical cushioning utilising elastic cushioning rings at either end, adjustable air cushioning and even self-adjusting cushioning.

When adjustable air cushioning is selected ISO 15552 states that the adjusting screw should be placed on the same side as the pneumatic port connection.

What Types Of ISO 15552 Are Available?

Rowse Pneumatics stock and supply a wide range of ISO 15552 cylinders from leading pneumatic manufacturers such as Camozzi and Festo. Within each manufacturers catalogue, they a number of different types of cylinder that adhere to the ISO 15552 standard:

• Festo DNC Cylinder
• Festo DSBC Cylinders
• Festo DSBG Cylinders
• Festo DSBF Cylinders
• Camozzi Series 40 Cylinders
• Camozzi Series 41 Cylinders
• Camozzi Series 60 Cylinders
• Camozzi Series 61 Cylinders
• Camozzi Series 90 Cylinders

The reason why manufacturers have different ISO 15552 cylinders available is that they can utilise different materials and designs for different industries. For example, the Festo DSBC cylinder is the standard offering from Festo for a ISO 15552 cylinder, whereas the DSBF is a clean design version with hygienic features and non-corrosive properties. Likewise the Camozzi Series 90 is a stainless steel version of the Series 60 cylinder. Both Camozzi and Festo have a tie-rod version of the ISO 15552 standard; Camozzi Series 40, Series 60 and Series 90 and Festo have the DSBG cylinder version.

In addition to the standard features on an ISO 15552 cylinder such as bore size, cylinder stroke length and the cushioning method pneumatic cylinder manufacturers also offer many configurable attributes that can be incorporated into the design:

• Clamping Units
• End position locking
• Heat Resistant Seals
• Square piston rod
• Low friction
• Uniform, slow movement
• Through piston rod
• Female piston rods
• Corrosion protection
• Different scrapper for seal protection
• Cold resistant
• ATEX compliant

This flexibility in the design of an ISO 15552 cylinders makes them one of the most widely used cylinders in industry, with almost every production facility using pneumatics having a ISO 15552 installed.

Trying to identify a ISO 15552 pneumatic cylinder? Try our pneumatic cylinder identification tool.