AKO Pinch Valves are also a lot more light weight because they no longer have heavy cast iron flanges. Instead they now come in aluminium with a choice of bushing material if required, such as mild steel or stainless steel. The rubber sleeves inside the AKO Pinch Valves are also improved with extra walls,…
Aerators (also known as aerator pads, airbrators, and vibrating cones) are a simple component made up of a rubber cone or ‘mushroom’ shaped body, with a threaded screw connection, washer and fixing nut. These small but important devices are used for aeration, to simply get dry powders, granules and pellets to move.
A Pinch Valve is an economical piece of equipment that works like a tap. It has an on/off function, to shut off, allow or control the flow of any media passing through it. The Pinch Valve is made up of three parts:
More and more engineers and plant workers are opting for the Pinch Valve when fitting or replacing abrasion resistant valves. The Pinch Valve is a highly robust type of valve that is extremely reliable, with a very good elasticity. One of the main positive factors of this type of abrasion resistant valve is that it has lightening fast opening/closing times, ensuring a quick shutoff.
Having the simplest valve design, pinch valves comprise of a flexible elastomer body that obstructs the flow of media through the pinching mechanism of the rubber sleeve, which is the main working element. The rubber sleeve is pinched closed either by the application of fluid pressure or mechanically in the body. It is squeezed at the valve’s mid-section, clamping or pinching its walls together to tightly close the flow path.
Low blocking valves of the rubber squeeze type (commonly recognised as the Pinch Valve) are extremely good at keeping a free passage with no dead spots or blockages. They are either operated pneumatically using compressed air, or manually with a hand wheel.
Manually operated low blocking valve closed with spring pistons
Both types have a specially constructed rubber sleeve or hose inside the body of the valve, which has a very high resilience and is exceptionally durable. Even when used on aggressive or corrosive media, the sleeves come in different types of rubber so can handle almost every application.
The rubber sleeve inside a Pinch Valve is the only wearable part of the whole valve. This means that the total cost of ownership is very low for this product. Unlike other conventional valve types such as gate valves and butterfly valves, the pinch valve does not require any additional seals, packing, gates or discs etc.
Sanitary or sterile valves are one of the best choices for applications where sterility, cleanliness, zero dead volume, and uninterrupted flow are of utmost importance. The rubber tubing inside the sterile valves provides an unobstructed flow path that drastically reduces shear effect and turbulence of the media. This also results in minimal loss in pressure, which further improves the efficiency of the system. The flowing media also stays inside the original supply tube.
One of the highlighting features of the pinch valve is that it requires little to no maintenance. This is because the only part that undergoes wear and interacts with the flowing media is the rubber sleeve. The component is made of a highly corrosion and abrasion resistant material, such as rubber, silicone, and several other forms of elastomers, which dramatically increases the wear-life of the sleeve in these maintenance free valves.
The processes in this industry require valves for cement that are highly abrasion and wear resistant, because of the nature of materials used in the manufacturing of cement. Pinch valves are the best valves for cement, as they are embedded with a high quality elastomer sleeve present in its housing. This component allows tight control over the cement flow in the transfer lines, as well as keeps the media from interacting with the rest of the system.
