Integrated drives survive sewage applications

A Festo product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team May 30, 2008

Functional integration transforms the actuator technology into a complete, sturdy system that is suitable for use outdoors and in cold, dusty or hazardous environments.

Festo has released integrated pneumatic drive products that are ideal for wastewater treatment plants or systems used in the chemical industry.

The new DFP series includes a completely self-contained linear drive unit and a quarter-turn actuator that uses a rack-and-pinion design.

Festo's DFPI series linear drives feature a displacement encoder, valve manifold and position controller, all contained within the same housing.

This high level of functional integration transforms the actuator technology into a complete, sturdy system that is suitable for use outdoors and in cold, dusty or hazardous environments.

DFPI linear drives are particularly suitable for use with gate valves in wastewater treatment plants, to accurately regulate the flow of digested sludge into digester tanks.

In applications such as this, DFPI drives offer numerous advantages over conventional modular systems, including more compact dimensions, good explosion protection characteristics and high corrosion resistance.

Furthermore, the drives can be controlled via a PLC and are therefore easy to integrate into existing control architectures.

They can be fitted with a heating element to ensure effective flow control even at low outside temperatures.

Festo's new DFPB pneumatic quarter-turn actuator is intended primarily for automated control of the flow of biogas created in a digester tank, though it is equally suitable for process control applications in areas as diverse as the pharmaceutical industry and coffee-roasting plants.

When combined with an electro-pneumatic position controller the actuator can also used for high-precision positioning applications, such as the control of ball and plug, shut-off and butterfly valves.

The actuator uses rack-and-pinion technology to convert the linear movement of the piston into rotation of the shaft.

DFPB actuators exhibit a constant torque characteristic across their entire rotation angle range of 90 degrees.

They are also extremely compact, with single-acting and double-acting actuators in the same housing.

A new pressure-dependent lip-type seal minimises frictional loss and ensures a longer service life.

The actuator can be mounted on both right-closing and left-closing process valves.

Find out more about this article. Request a brochure, download technical specifications and request samples here.

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