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Product Spotlight:
Diagonal design makes pneumatic valve unit smaller, lighter, more energy efficient

Ideal for assembly close to the actuator: The new, lightweight AV03 valve system from Rexroth has an ultra-compact design thanks to a diagonal arrangement of the valve components.

 

 

Technical designers always try to position pneumatic valves as close to actuators as possible, because shorter tubing lengths reduce the required compressed air by up to 20 percent. However, common valves are usually too large and heavy for handling applications.

With Rexroth's new generation of extremely compact and lightweight Advanced Valve AV03 valve systems, engineers now have a lot more freedom and can decentralize pneumatic arrangements, thus increasing efficiency.

Compared to the market standard, Rexroth has halved the weight of the new valves by using high-performance polymers and reducing the number of parts. A further plus: The required space has also been cut by 45 percent. A single unit is the length and height of a credit card.

How did they do it? Rexroth developers arranged the valve components at an angle and optimized the supply and exhaust channels, thus reducing flow losses. Users profit from a flow improvement of 40 percent, allowing them to substantially lower the supply pressure and boosting energy efficiency.

The new valve system also fulfills engineers' demands for customized automation solutions. Using a 25-pin D-sub connection, manifolds can be configured in increments of one after the second valve position, and after the fourth valve position with 44-pin D-sub and Field bus connections. The new AV03 can control up to 24 coils with 25-pin D-sub connection, up to 40 coils with 44-pin D-sub connection, and up to 128 coils with Fieldbus connection.

Nowadays, more and more users also implement different pressure zones in a single valve system to achieve even greater savings. The new valve systems allow up to 10 supply plates for this exact purpose.

In addition to improving energy efficiency, the new AV03 also fulfills expectations for simple engineering. Users can connect the valve systems electrically using multipole or Fieldbus connections, with integrated I/O modules, depending on their configuration. Thanks to the option of directly connecting sensors to the valve electronics, fewer cables have to be fed back to the control cabinet.

You can learn more about this pneumatic system by clicking here.

Source: Rexroth/Bosch Group

Published April 2013

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