Emergency stopping. Tensioning. Stop-and-hold. What if your industrial equipment needs extra force and stability to perform one of these braking actions—but shop air is your only power source?
Air over oil intensifiers provide an on-demand, localized power boost by converting shop air to higher hydraulic pressure. They’re ideal for small hydraulic devices that don't need high-volume fluid displacement, like hydraulic brakes or vises.
How does an intensifier work?
An air-over-oil intensifier is a compact, self-contained unit. It has two chambers: one for air and one for hydraulic fluid. The compressed air, which typically produces 80-100 psi, drives a piston in the first chamber, which pressurizes a small reservoir of hydraulic fluid or oil in the second chamber to create the required stopping force. Intensifiers work with both standard and spring-applied hydraulic brakes.
How much boost can you achieve?
The ratio of pressure increase reflects the area of the two piston surfaces.
- For example, in a 10:1 intensifier, the surface of the pneumatic piston is ten times greater than that of the hydraulic piston. Fluid displacement is conversely related to pressure increase.
Branham air over oil intensifiers are designed with conversion ratios from 5:1 to 36:1. Depending on the model you choose, the intensifier will boost your available power by 500% to 3600%. That enables you to choose the most appropriate brake for the task—whether or not a hydraulic system is available.
Branham also makes OVLBOOST®, an all-in-one pneumatic-to-hydraulic actuator. It uses our unique oval piston and bore so it has a low profile and can be mounted flat or on its side. OVLBOOST® allows for greater displacement because it is longer on the hydraulic side. It is available in either 25 mm or 44 mm bore size, both with 7.8:1 pressure ratio.
Multiple intensifiers can be used in tandem if greater fluid displacement is needed. Doubling up intensifiers still uses a single pneumatic stroke, but doubles the fluid displacement and therefore the force generated.
- For example, to achieve 10 cubic inch displacement, you could use two intensifiers that each produce 7.068 cubic inches. However, it’s important to note there is a practical limit to the feasibility of this solution. Multiple intensifiers can also be used in parallel for sequencing applications.
How versatile are intensifiers?
Intensifiers are versatile engineering tools. While often used for rapid-response braking, they are also excellent for clamp-and-hold tasks (like grippers and indexers), tensioning on winding machines, operating precision robotics, and more.
Here’s an example: A customer once needed more holding force for a tooling fixture than their shop air could provide. Instead of investing in a full hydraulic system for a single need, they installed an intensifier to achieve the needed stopping power.
How could an intensifier save the day for your operation? Here are 10 diverse real-world applications.
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Air over oil intensifiers are simple and reliable, delivering the power and stability needed to precisely control braking, tensioning, or stop-and-hold. Their space-saving design mounts right in line with the pneumatic actuator. And they are cost-efficient—no need to invest in a costly hydraulic system or deal with the associated noise, complex maintenance, and risk of leakage.
So how much extra power does your application require? Branham has an intensifier for that.
