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Valve islands are `two-thirds smaller than rivals`

01 July, 2004

Valve islands are `two-thirds smaller than rivals`

Asco Joucomatic has developed a range of valve islands which is claims are the smallest and lightest available, occupying less than a third of the space of rival eight-station systems, and weighing half as much.

The Compact 8 islands will allow OEMs to make their machines smaller while retaining high-flow (280 l/min) performance, and providing communications such as Profibus and DeviceNet.

A palm-sized eight-station island takes up just 490 cubic cm of machine or panel space and weighs a mere 600g. Computer simulations were used to optimise the design of the valve holes to minimise changes in flow directions. This means that the valves allow enough flow to operate 50mm-bore cylinders directly, as well as being able to pilot piston and butterfly process valves.

Islands of up to 16 8mm-wide valves (or "biscuits") can be assembled quickly using just one tool. It takes about 80s to assemble a six-station manifold, and about 2min to change a valve. Valves can be added individually, unlike many rival systems which expand in steps of at least two valves.

A variety of monostable and bistable spool valves are available, with just 1W needed to move the spool and 0.15W to hold it, allowing direct PC control. The valves have a 2-8 bar pressure range, a 20ms response time, and a cycle life of at least 20 million operations.

The islands offer IP65 protection and can be mounted directly onto machines, in panels or near pneumatic actuators.




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