A manufacturer of precision rotary cutting tools are using AKO Pinch Valves within their edge preparation machines. A pink coloured powdered substance is used to smooth sharp edges on drill tips, before regrinding the ends. The cutting tools are used in industries such as automotive, aerospace and medical.
The company have been using pinch valves since 2016. This is when the machine was made, and has been running with AKO Pinch Valves since.
VMP model, air operated, black POM plastic body with BSP threaded end connections, natural rubber sleeve.
Media passing through the valve: Water mixed with pink powder
Temperature of media: 10-15 degrees C
Pressure of media passing through the valve: 2.2 bar maximum
The Pinch Valves are held in the normally closed position.
Amount of cycles per day: Average 10 cycles per day (each cycle includes 15 tools)
Amount of air used to close the Pinch Valve: 6 bar
AKO advised the manufacturers to reduce the amount of air pressure used to close the pinch valve to 4.5 bar, since only 2 – 2.5 bar is required to fully shut off the sleeve. Using the correct closing pressure can increase the lifetime of the sleeve.
The engineer on site said:
“The machines are running perfectly with AKO Pinch Valves. We have had no trouble since we replaced the sleeves after 1 year, which is great. The Pinch Valves are a great product, easy to fit and assemble onto pipework. This helps cut down maintenance time.”
The part numbers for the natural rubber sleeves used within this application are M032.03X & M020.03XK.
The company keep spare sleeves on the shelf, just in case of any unexpected failures but to date there has been none. They decide to change all sleeves in all of the pinch valves for powdered substance at once.
