The low-cost and precise piston gas pressure regulator

The present paper discusses the concept and functioning of an innovative instrument for precise stabilization of gas pressure. The piston gas pressure regulator was constructed at the Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The tests to which the instrument was subjected involved observing the values of stabilized pressure at the level of 10 bar and 3 bar, for various gas flow rates at the outlet of the instrument. The piston gas pressure regulator operates within the range of 0–10 bar and the gas flow range of 0–240 cm³ min⁻¹. The precision of the process of stabilizing the initial pressure is  ±0.005 bar, regardless of the gas pressure value and the flow rate observed at the outlet of the instrument. Although the pressure transducer's accuracy is 0.25% of the full range, the conducted tests of the regulator demonstrated that the obtained changeability of the stabilized pressure is at least two times lower. Unlike some other gas pressure regulators available on the market, the instrument constructed by the authors of the present paper is highly precise when it comes to the process of stabilization, and inexpensive to build. (paper)