Inventive With Great Features.

The 4G is an incredibly versatile pneumatic solenoid valve series. I will explain some of the inventive features and how the 4G are designed to be very adaptable. A great choice to keep on the shelf for both designing an application and as spare parts for your facility.

The fantastic design of the valve provides a service life that is tested at 100 million cycles with response times as fast as 12 +/- 2 ms. Oval seals on the spool creates low friction when used with the precise manufacturing of the valves inner bore (machining tolerance is +/- 10 μm), enabling this long service life and large flow rates.

They can be used as individual body ported or base mounted 3 & 5 port valves or assembled onto manifolds. Types of manifolds available are block or metal base, individually wired, reduced wiring (such as D sub entry) or controlled using serial communication input blocks. The 4G can also be modularly attached to air preparation assemblies to save space inside a control panel.

Block manifolds are easy to expand if an application needs to be modified by simply adding extra stations. All that is needed is extra manifold bases, valves and expansion cables with socket which can be purchased as spare parts.

With metal manifolds, a great tip is to order a base with extra stations which are covered by blanks, in case a future modification to your application requires extra valves to be added. Then you will not have to find space within a potentially crowded panel to fit another manifold base.

The D-Sub cable entry for the reduced wiring style manifold can be fixed laterally or facing up, enabling cable orientation to suit available space in an application.

Manifolds with a serial communication block electrical entry are compatible with various communication protocols, such as EtherNet IP, DeviceNet, EtherCAT, CC-Link, Profinet, Profibus & IO Link. The interface units can be attached to both metal base and block manifolds.

Shown in the photos below is the size 3, a good choice for operating 50 or 63 bore cylinders at high speed. These photos highlight the great features which make these a standout valve series.

The 4G series can be changed from a body ported valve to base mounted by removing the piping adaptor (where the inlet and exhaust ports are located), or from base mounted to body ported by adding piping adaptor. 4G valves and spares such as piping adaptors and gaskets are great parts to keep on the shelf to help in various machine breakdown situations.

The top plate can also be swapped to change from top porting to base porting, and also change from threaded ports to push fittings. To turn a 5 port valve into 3 port, a plug can be added to either threaded ports or push fitting top plate (or removed and replaced with push fitting to turn back to a 5 port) by simply removing and replacing a holding clip which can be seen in the photos below. Top plates and fittings would also be great spares to keep on the shelf.

The manual override has a cover which cannot be fully closed when the override is engaged and locked into position, providing a visual indicator to other operators that maintenance is being carried out.

The 2 pin plug can be connected either vertically or laterally, no need to use separate part numbers to order valves with either electrical entry orientations.

The filter in the manifold pressure inlet port also keeps contamination out.

The pilot line inside the valve body also includes a filter to prevent any contamination entering the pilot valve and causing malfunction.

The pilot exhausts in the 4G series also contain back pressure check valves as standard to ensure the smooth operation of the pilot valves.

The pilot valves allow pressure to act on pistons inside the pilot assembly of a valve, which in turn moves the main spool when a solenoid is energized. Doing this saves energy consumption as the valve is using air pressure to move the spool rather than electrical current.

When the solenoid is de-energized, the pilot valve will close and pressure needs to be exhausted to allow the spool to move back into its normal position.

If this pressure is not exhausted, or if some back pressure is present, the spool may not fully reset, which could lead to problems such as mid porting, where some pressure escapes through both outlet ports. This could cause problems like cylinder rods showing erratic operation for example. Pilot exhaust check valves prevent back pressure entering the pilot and causing malfunction.

Back pressure on exhaust lines in valve manifolds can also cause erratic operation in the actuators they control.

One method to alleviate the effects of back pressure on the exhaust lines is to add exhaust check valves into ports 5 & 3 of a control valve (A check valve will only allow fluid to flow past it in one direction). The 4G series from CKD allows this to be selected as a standard catalogue option.

These check valves are integrated in the gasket used to mount a 4G valve to a manifold base or piping adaptor, fitting inside the valve body. The check valves allow exhaust air to flow out from the exhaust ports, but prevent pressure entering ports 5 & 3. The gasket with exhaust check valves are also available as a spare part, so a standard valve can be modified to include exhaust check valves if back pressure becomes an issue. Another very handy spare part to keep in stock.

This article has been a brief overview of these valves, and there are various other features which can be ordered as catalogue standard to suit or enhance an application. To discover how the 4G can be a great addition for your company please get in touch.