Mutes rams (four in total) are all 1.5/38mm bore and we fire them with a couple of home made valves. Under no load conditions the valve/pipework can pass enough gas (assuming pressure remains constant at around 40 bar) to completely fill our front rams in 0.01 seconds.

The rams are homemade and are nothing too special, although they are a bit chunky to cope with the duty. Cylinder wall is 6mm thk, front end cap is upto 10mm thk stainless steel, and the rear is upto 20mm thk stainless steel. We use tie rods to hold the whole thing together which are again stainless steel.

We do have to regularly inspect the rams, mounting brakets and chassis where the rams are attached to check for bending but this isnt really a problem.