“Using Pinch Valves from AKO UK has been a huge benefit to our company – Not only are we saving money, we are also reducing downtime so that our plant can process our product faster and more efficiently.”
Producing Ready To Eat Salads
A Pinch Valve (also nicknamed as a squeeze valve, tube valve, hose valve, bladder valve, rubber membrane valve or soft seated valve), consists of a flexible rubber sleeve enclosed in a sturdy housing. Only compressed air or a fluid is needed to squeeze the rubber sleeve and close the valve to shut off or regulate the flow of product in a pipeline. Normally a pinch valve is either open or closed, as shown in the video to the right.
The sleeve is made from an elastomer of different kinds including Natural Rubber, food quality rubbers, EPDM, silicon, butyle, nitrile, hypalon, viton and neoprene. When the pressure is removed the rubber sleeve will rapidly spring back to it’s original fully open position. The rubber sleeve is the only moving part and is easily replaceable without special tools. Based on the application, sleeves are available in a wide range of elastomers as mentioned above, where other conventional types of valves have only a short life expectancy because of abrasive or corrosive products. For most applications the advantages of pinch valves far outweigh their limitations including limitations of operating temperature (depending on selected sleeve material) and maximum operating pressure (depending on size).