Hydraulic and pneumatic pressures are types of fluid power systems that generate and convey energy. The following points highlight some key differences between hydraulic pressure and pneumatic pressure.
- Medium: In hydraulic pressure, the transmission channel of energy is mainly a liquid, usually oil or water-based; while in pneumatic pressure, it is compressed air gas.
- Density: For hydraulics, liquids being denser compared to gases enable smaller components to generate greater pressures as opposed to pneumatics.
- Power: Due to their capacity for delivering more energy than others, hydraulics have an advantage over pneumatics when it comes to heavy-duty applications.
- Control: The power density increases with maintaining constant pressure when using hydraulics. This enables them to offer better control unlike those powered by pneumatics.
- Maintenance: Unlike in hydraulic systems where there are risks of fluid leaks and contamination issues, lower maintenance occurs in pneumatics
Manufacturing, construction and mining are among the many sectors that commonly employ hydraulic systems that need to have a lot of power and be precisely controlled. Lighter industrial applications such as automation and robotics often use pneumatic systems whose energy consumption is low.
In summary, hydraulic pressure uses a liquid for power transmission; therefore, it can create high force with accuracy while on the other hand pneumatic pressure uses gas and it is mainly used in less demanding tasks. It depends on what an application requires – e.g., accuracy, maintenance or power – to decide whether it should use hydraulic or pneumatic pressure.
