Valve for Surface Finishing Equipment

Wet & Dry Blasting Cabinets for Surface Treatment

An original equipment manufacturer producing surface treatment equipment are designing and producing wet and dry blasting cabinets for a range of industries and applications, including alloy wheel refurbishment, classic car & motorcycle part restoration, engine remanufacture and preparation, marine applications, precision engineering, aviation & aerospace, plus many other surface treatment applications.

The blasting equipment uses various different media depending on the application, including aluminium oxide, glass beads, and steel shot.

Dry Blasting Cabinets

Dry Blast Cabinets are designed to effortlessly remove a range of surface residue, including paint, adhesives, wax, lacquer and much more to leave a clean and aesthetically pleasing surface finish.

The cabinets function by propelling abrasive media in either a pressurised conversion system, or using compressed air through a nozzle. Pressurised systems involve compressing the media within a pressure vessel and then projecting it at force through a nozzle.

Pinch Valve used within this application: VMP015.03XK.72

VMP model, air operated, black POM plastic body, black POM plastic BSP threaded ends, natural rubber sleeve.

On the dry blasting cabinet, one DN15 Pinch Valve from AKO UK’s VMP range. The purpose of this valve for surface finishing is for it to act as a pressure release valve – Once pressure is applied via the foot pedal on the equipment, the pinch valve closes, so that the media can only come up through the spray nozzle. The Pinch Valve for surface finishing is used to speed up the depressurising of the pressure vessel, to let the air out quicker. Once the foot is removed from the pedal, the valve opens to release the air back into the hopper, which is sucked out and filtered.

Wet Blasting Cabinets

The wet blasting cabinet is an automatic surface finishing machine using water, air and media to blast wash the components on a turning carousel, leaving a smooth, silky finish.

The wet blast cabinets function using a mixture of abrasive media and water contained in the slurry pump system. Compressed air is then introduced to propel the abrasive media and water mixture onto the surface of the component, instantly creating a clean and soft finish.

Pinch Valve used within this application: VMP025.03XK.72

VMP model, air operated, black POM plastic body, black POM plastic BSP threaded ends, natural rubber sleeve.

Once this machine is turned on, the media and water are mixed up, and the valve for surface finishing closes to retain the water in the tank. The washer jets add water into the tank the whole time that it is in use, adding clean water to the mixture, to prevent it getting dirtier and dirtier.

When blasting components, the media is suspended in the fluid, and once the cycle ends, the spent media cascades down a weir system when draining.

With this machine, an off-delay timer is wired in and set at two minutes. When a foot is taken off the pedal, the Pinch Valve stays closed for two minutes while waiting for the media to settle. The Pinch Valve for surface finishing then opens after two minutes once the media has built up, draining out the dirty water.

If there is no Pinch Valve installed onto this wet blasting machine, more media goes to waste.

Valve for Surface Finishing Performance, Spares & Servicing

It is difficult to pinpoint a number of cycles that the pinch valve undertakes per day, due to different demands and applications. But for example, a typical surface finishing machine could bast up to 40 wheels per day. Each wheel would need to be turned for the process to be repeated on the other side, and could have around 4 minutes of blasting on each side.

The OEM have been using Pinch Valves for surface finishing from AKO UK since 2013.

The valves are currently lasting longer than one year, However, rather than taking the pinch valve apart and replacing the rubber sleeve, the OEM choose to simply replace the whole pinch valve as a complete unit, as and when required. With the VMP Pinch Valve being an inexpensive product, this is an attractive product to the OEM because they also know that AKO Pinch Valves are reliable and perform exceptionally well.