Pinch Valve Advantages & Disadvantages

The pinch valve is the simplest valve design on the market, and has many benefits over conventional type valves. Most other valve types are unable to handle fluids with high concentrations of solids due to the particles often jamming the metal parts and clogging up the valve. Pinch Valves are the complete solution for handling almost every media in even the most severe application specifications, with no metal or mechanical parts.

The flexible elastomer sleeve inside the Pinch Valve, which has been specially designed, forms an effective seal with a tight shutoff around trapped particles. In some applications, particles can become trapped in the seal of the disc or ball in other conventional valves such as ball valves or butterfly valves, resulting in the product not shutting off fully.

Rubber liners inside a Pinch Valve come in a range of different qualities of rubber, making various areas of application, operating temperatures and lasting properties possible. The grade of the rubber is crucial to the life time and anti-abrasion characteristics of the Pinch Valve. Depending on the elastomer used, the pinch valve can be limited in operating temperature and pressure.

In balance, the Pinch Valve advantages far outweigh the disadvantages:

  • Advantages

    • Low & easy maintenance
    • Low weight
    • No clogging or dead spots
    • Compact, simple, robust & straight through design
    • Very fast opening/closing times
    • Less air consumption
    • Self cleaning
    • Permanent seal with tight shutoff
    • Minimal turbulence & friction
    • No mechanical parts, and no bearings, seals or packing required.
    • Only one replaceable part (elastomer sleeve)
    • No extra or special actuator required
    • Inexpensive with extremely good Total Cost of Ownership.
  • Disadvantages

    • Temperature range is limted
    • Medium operating pressure is limited
    • Face to face length may be an issue when limited space for fitting the valve is available.

See How the Air Operated Pinch Valve Works:

The air operated Pinch Valve is the most practical solution for on/off or proportional flow control of many abrasive and corrosive products including powders, slurries, aggregates, chemicals, food, cement, agricultural spraying, vacuum systems and many more.

Air Operated Pinch Valve Open

full bore pinch valve advantages
100% Full and true bore with Pinch Valves

Air Operated Pinch Valve Closed

complete shut off pinch valve advantages
100% Complete media shutoff and suspension with Pinch Valves

See How The Manual Pinch Valve Works:

The manual Pinch Valve is not automatic but gives the user the option to position the valve as required. It is operated by simply turning a handwheel to move a stem up and down. The elastomer sleeve is pinched tightly closed with 2 pinching bars from the top and bottom. A stem packing is not necessary in pinch valves, eliminating a potential leak path.

Manual Pinch Valve Open

pinch valve advantages disadvantages
Unobstructed media flow

Manual Pinch Valve Closed

pinch valve advantages disadvantages
Double sided pinch

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