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6 years ago

MDA Technologies 5/2014

MDA Technologies 5/2014

Economical and

Economical and Energy-Efficient: Miniaturized Pilot Valve Technology Theo Paulus Compact size, energy efficiency, and intelligent control: When it comes to miniaturization in pneumatics, pilot valve technology plays a central role in terms of performance data and economy. Author: Theo Paulus, Vice President Product Area Standard Pneumatics at Aventics in Laatzen, Germany There is movement in the pneumatics industry, not least because of an everincreasing discussion related to energy efficiency. Conventional pneumatics can offer substantial savings through the use of intelligent system designs. Valve technology miniaturization is another decisive step towards energy-efficient pneumatics. New developments, such as the Aventics AV series valve generation in sizes AV03 and AV05, offer impressive potentials for savings. While developing the required pilot valve technology, the company made a series of basic decisions that will shape pneumatics over the long term. These decisions were based on industry user demands. Six factors are key for engineers when developing a pneumatic system: n Flow rate, n Dynamics, n Efficiency, n Size, n Service life and n Costs. Engineers change their focus, depending on whether the products are to be used in the electronics industry, heavy industry, or general machine construction and automation technology. In heavy industry, the flow rate, i.e. the output, is critical, whereas electronic applications place a high emphasis on dynamics, efficiency, and component size. In the broad field of general machine construction, the large number of different applications leads to a mostly balanced properties profile. However, energy efficiency is also gaining in importance in more and more applications. 40 MDA Technologies 5/2014

Drive technologies 01 Factors that are decisive for designers when laying out pneumatic systems Procurement costs for pneumatics are a significant factor for all applications. This is also reflected in the experiences of pneumatics manufacturers. The right pneumatics is, above all, cost-optimized, compact, and energy-efficient, whilst being highly dynamic. On trend: Distributed systems with valves as small as a credit card Another market trend: Users are relying more and more on a distributed arrangement of pneumatics. This approach supports concepts for modularization in machine construction, because tubing and cabling can be greatly reduced, leading to minimized air consumption. The more compact and light the pneumatic valves are, 02 Sizes in comparison with a credit card MDA Technologies 5/2014 41

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