Home » Schunk Introduces Efficiency Booster for Small Part Handling
Schunk Introduces Efficiency Booster for Small Part Handling
January 2, 2014
With the micro valve MV 10, you can easily boost the productivity and energy efficiency of Pick & Place applications for small parts. This pneumatic valve is so small it can be integrated directly on grippers or other pneumatic actuators and can be plugged or screwed into the actuator ports.
Traditional systems use valves located in a control cabinet some distance from the gripper and use tubing from the valve to the gripper. Compressed air must travel the entire distance from the valve to the gripper which takes time and requires additional air to fill the tubing. Once the gripping operation is finished, the compressed air in the line is released and the energy is wasted.
The MV 10 improves efficiency by including the valve body and mechanicals at the gripper port. Instead of refilling the long supply lines between the valve block and the gripper for each pressure change, the compressed air consumption with the MV 10 is reduced to the volume of the piston chamber in the actuator. This makes it possible to save up to 90 percent on the compressed air. The response behavior is also improved, which reduces the cycle time.
With an outer diameter of 9 mm and a nominal diameter of 1 mm, the micro valve has a very low profile and will fit in many applications. Pneumatic port design enables a flow rate of up to 30 NI/min, which is substantially higher than any comparable solution on the market. It has complete media separation between the valve body and the solenoid and is suitable for not only air, but non-corrosive liquids and gases as well.