Over the decades, the company has continued to develop innovative new tin oxide based materials to service an ever-growing range of applications across many industry sectors.
Developing and testing materials until a solution has been found, and manufacturing this at a large scale by themselves in a consistent quality is what they like to do. They are continuously investing into R&D and quality control to make sure that the most suitable tools are at hand for their challenges. This is where the Pinch Valve comes in.
How does the valve assist with this application?
The pigment manufacturer adds colour into glass pigments. Installed between a disintegrator and vacuum system, the Pinch Valve’s job is to automatically open and close to match the cycles in the vacuum transfer system.
The vacuum conveying system is a premier powder conveying technology solution. It provides a safe and clean way to handle bulk solids, such as tin oxide powder. This includes handling fine dust, abrasive materials, and materials that absorb moisture (hygroscopic) or form bridges. These vacuum powder transfer systems represent an ideal alternative to traditional conveying methods, ensuring no product quality variations while minimizing product loss.
There are three Pinch Valves installed at this site. Conveying tin oxide powder, which is ambient, and intermittently under 4 BAR of vacuum. The Pinch Valves are normally open, and perform approximately 100-150 cycles per day.
A solenoid valve operates the air flow to open and close the Pinch Valve for tin oxide during vacuum transfer cycles.
Pinch Valve Preferred over Ball Valves & Knife Gate Valves
The Pinch Valve was incorporated with the purchased vacuum system from the original equipment manufacturer. This enabled the pigment manufacturer to find out about Pinch Valves and they now want to replace other applications where Ball Valves are presently used around the same site.
The company are currently using Ball Valves and Knife Gate Valves for their slurry processes. The Operations Manager, Martyn Pedley, told us at AKO UK that these standard valves do tend to stick and block after time due to the slurry becoming trapped in the ball or gate of the valves.
Pinch Valve used within this application – VMC40.03X.50G.30LX
VMC model, air operated, Natural rubber sleeve, aluminium body, stainless steel BSP threaded end connections.
Pinch Valves are self cleaning, and with the internal rubber sleeve opening and closing in the same position every time, the working media will never clog or cause any kind of build-up, continuously allowing a 100% free flowing passage.
Furthermore, the sleeve is the only wearable part that will need replacing. This company have so far replaced the total valve assembly when the sleeve bursts. AKO UK have reminded them that the whole valve does not need replacing, only the inner sleeve, which comes in a variation of different rubber materials to suit almost every application.
Unlike Ball Valves and Knife Gate Valves where additional parts will need replacing frequently, the Pinch Valve has an excellent total cost of ownership.
Customer Satisfaction and Overall Experience
After using Pinch Valves from AKO within this tin oxide powder application for 10 years, the company are very happy with the performance of the valves. The Operations Manager said:
“The Pinch Valves are very reliable. We received excellent after-sales service with quick response following a recent breakdown. Thank you.”