The pinch valve is the simplest valve design on the market, and has many benefits over conventional type valves. Most other valve types are unable to handle fluids with high concentrations of solids due to the particles often jamming the metal parts and clogging up the valve. Pinch Valves are the complete solution for handling almost every media in even the most severe application specification with no metal or mechanical parts.
The flexible elastomer sleeve inside the Pinch Valve, which has been specially designed, forms an effective seal with a tight shutoff around trapped particles. In some applications, particles can become trapped in the seal of the disc or ball in other conventional valves such as ball valves or butterfly valves, resulting in the product not shutting off fully.
Rubber liners inside a Pinch Valve come in a range of different quality of rubber making various areas of application, operating temperatures and lasting properties possible. The grade of the rubber is crucial to the life time and anti-abrasion characteristics of the Pinch Valve. Depending on the elastomer used, the pinch valve can be limited in operating temperature and pressure.
In balance, the Pinch Valve advantages far outweigh the disadvantages:
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Advantages
- Low & easy maintenance
- Low weight
- No clogging or dead spots
- Compact, simple, robust & straight through design
- Very fast opening/closing times
- Less air consumption
- Self cleaning
- Permanent seal with tight shutoff
- Minimal turbulence & friction
- No mechanical parts, and no bearings, seals or packing required.
- Only one replaceable part (elastomer sleeve)
- Inexpensive with extremely good Total Cost of Ownership.
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Disadvantages
- Temperature range is limted
- Operating pressure is limited
- Not recommended for gases
