Patent ID: 7204184

Claim:
A guide system with a pneumatic stop structure ( 10 ), comprising a cylinder ( 20 ), a piston ( 51 , 43 , 54 , 58 ) movably disposed in said cylinder ( 20 ), a piston rod ( 41 ) which is subjected to internal and external forces connected to said piston and extending from said cylinder ( 20 ) for providing a force in a direction opposite to the stroke movement of the piston, said piston including a piston seal element ( 61 ) and delimiting in said cylinder ( 20 ) a displacement chamber ( 15 ), flow passages ( 32 , 33 , 58 ) provided for controlling air flow past the piston ( 51 ) into and out of the displacement chamber ( 15 ) at a rate depending on the direction of movement of the piston ( 51 , 43 , 54 , 58 ) in the cylinder ( 20 ), and said piston seal element ( 61 ) being in contact which the wall of the cylinder ( 20 ) when the piston is in a first end position in said cylinder ( 20 ) and the seal is not exposed to pressurized air, said cylinder ( 20 ) having a cross-section which steadily increases at least in predetermined areas along the axial length thereof from the first end position of the piston toward the opposite end of the cylinder so that in the largest cylinder cross-section area at said opposite end of the cylinder, the piston seal element ( 61 ) is not in sealing engagement with the cylinder wall when the piston is at said opposite end of the cylinder ( 20 ), the system further including an engagement element ( 6 ) for engagement with an energy storage member ( 5 ) which is released by the engagement action of the engagement element ( 6 ) and exerts a force in the direction of the external force for pulling the engagement element) toward its end position.