A compact directional valve can operate as two independent valves in a single body, or in conjunction with its RPS manifold can handle different pressures simultaneously.
The new S10 compact directional valve from pneumatics specialist Hoerbiger-Origa can operate as two independent valves in a single body, or in conjunction with its RPS manifold can handle different pressures simultaneously. The development of the S10 was based on an increasing user requirement for smaller valves, but the design team has taken the opportunity to incorporate many other advantages, as Hoerbiger-Origa's Ian Jones explains: 'The ISO standards actually caused some stagnation in valve design, with no great advances for 10 years or more. But the volume market trend has swung away from the universal standard designs (like ISO), as companies can gain a competitive advantage by using more compact, efficient and economic valve designs.

This is being achieved in the S10 by the adoption of new materials, better manufacturing, higher precision and optimised designs.

The new S10 demonstrates the advances inherent in the latest generation of valves.

Typically they are less than 30% per cent in size; yet offer a 30 per cent increase in flow rate over older units.

As these valves are often required to run on vital processes for years without attention ongoing reliability was a key concern for the designers, who have addressed the issue by ensuring that the S10 has a life expectancy in excess of 25 million cycles.

'And perhaps best of all they are 30 percent cheaper than previous models,' enthuses Jones.

Hoerbiger-Origa offers the S10 in a wide range of options, variants and configurations.

All come with the option of G1/8 threaded ports or 6mm push-in connections, manual overrides are standard with electrically actuated versions.

There are 2x3/2, 5/2 and 5/3 way versions and a choice of mono-stable or bi-stable formats, all with nominal flow rates of 650l/min and nominal power of 1.1W.

Options include an LED indicator and external pilot air.

Complete multipole and fieldbus valve islands and ASi connectors for individual valves will also be available in the near future, while a piezo electric operation version is under development.

The simplicity of S10's mounting manifold design makes it compact yet able to provide a common air supply for up to 16 valves.

The uniform port size allows several different valve functions to be combined on the same manifold, a feature with considerable cost saving potential for systems builders.

Innovations on the manifold include flow dividers and intermediate compressed air connection.

These can be set up such that one section will feed valves at one pressure and another section will supply other valves at a different pressure.

Basically this is achieved by plugging the common pressure port at any selected point between two valve positions, such that each side of the manifold can then fed with a different pressure.