Filling and dispensing with a simple pinch valve solution

Filling and dispensing accurately can be problematic sometimes. Whether you are dispensing sugar into sachets, rice into bags, milk into cartons, pills into bottles or conveying slurry through process lines, the amount of product metered and controlled can be critical. Blockages and build up within the valve are a common issue which means either repeated replacement of the valve or regular strip down for cleaning, meaning lengthy downtime. Overspill is not acceptable, costly and unsafe, whilst underfill causes real challenges maintaining the required weights and masses.?This is where Festo can help.

We recently helped a customer look into their dispensing application. The challenges was that they had to make changes on a very small budget without any major changes to their existing machine configuration that also had limited space. Furthermore, they needed a non-corrosive constructed valve so that the machine could be washed down on a regular basis.?

The VZQA pinch valves from Festo were retro-fitted into the flow lines. These fit-for-purpose and inexpensive valves with a simple pneumatic control system provided full bore delivery of product with instant shut off, meaning just the right amount of product was dispensed. No drips, no overspill and highly repeatable.?

The valve is a tube design which means the flow of product is full bore allowing for un-interrupted throughput and minimal flow resistance. It's available in stock in either normally open variant or normally closed for fail safe operation should you loose air pressure.

The high performance valves are extremely easy to service which enables food processing managers to save downtime and associated costs. The pinch valve’s sealing cartridge can be changed in just a few minutes in four simple steps and without special tools, and they can be cleaned easily thanks to their full media passage flow and very little dead space. The sealing cartridge is available in EPDM, NBR and silicone to suit a wide range of demanding applications and media.

Made from aluminium or stainless steel, the pinch valves prove themselves in even the most challenging environments and the internal parts offer the same durability against aggressive media. Thanks to a patented sealing cartridge, the valves can withstand the very high demands in continuous daily operation, whether abrasive, corrosive, highly viscous or neutral media is used.?

Want to know more about VZQA?

You can find useful videos on how to service the VZQA, for example how to replace the sealing cartridge which can be found in the Festo Services channel on YouTube.

For more information visit www.festo.com/vzqa or to find out whether it would be suitable for your application, please get in touch with your Festo contact.