In a double-acting cylinder, how is air volume per cycle typically calculated?

• A. Displacement per stroke equals area times stroke
• B. Displacement per stroke times cycles per minute, counting both directions
• C. Twice the supply pressure
• D. The same regardless of cycle frequency

Answer: (B)

In a double-acting cylinder, the amount of air moved depends on two things: how much air is moved in one stroke (the displacement) and how often those strokes occur. The displacement of one stroke is the cross-sectional area of the piston times its travel (stroke length). To get the air volume moved over time, you multiply that stroke displacement by the number of strokes occurring per minute, counting both directions (extension and retraction) in each cycle. That gives you the air volume moved per minute, which is the practical way to express per-cycle flow when you account for how often the cylinder cycles. The other ideas don’t capture both the per-stroke volume and the frequency of cycles, or they mix in pressure rather than volume.