Introduction
Pneumatic pinch valves are suitable for start, stop, and throttling applications (typically 10-90% throttling range). Pneumatic pinch valves have a very simple design with few moving parts; they are also cheap to manufacture.
The pneumatic pinch valve is very well suited for operating in slurry systems or those with a large amount of suspended bodies within the flowing medium. It is also very well suited to pneumatic systems and the conveying of solids.
The response time of the valve (time from fully open to fully closed, or vice versa), is usually very low.
Unlike many other types of common valve, the pinch valve completely separates the flowing medium from its operating parts; this is of great advantage when the flowing medium is corrosive.
The pinch valve consists of a body and sleeve. The material of the sleeve is chosen to be flexible and durable; typical construction materials include natural and synthetic rubbers. The body of the valve is usually manufactured from metal or a plastic polymer based material. Most pinch valves allow for replacement of the sleeve within the body without requiring the whole valve to be replaced.
The design of the pinch valve allows almost unimpeded flow through the valve which creates a very low pressure differential across the valve. Usually, the pinch valve is actuated pneumatically or mechanically, although electrical and hydraulic actuation is also possible. Non-mechanical actuation methods have the benefits that the valve can be actuated quickly and remotely.
3D Model Components
This 3D model contains all common parts of a pinch valve, these include:
- Sleeve
- Housing
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How Pneumatic Pinch Valve Work
The below video is an extract from our Introduction to Valves Online Video Course.
Additional Resources
https://www.pinch-valves.com/2017/05/15/what-does-a-pinch-valve-do
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinch_valve
https://tameson.com/pinch-valve.html