Those of you that have utilised Mucon Iris Diaphragm valves over the past sixty years they have been on the market, will have doubtless noted that, at least in the manually operated form, it is possible to vary the diameter of the valve’s orifice almost infintiely between fully closed and fully open.
Over this period Mucon has developed and launched a number of powered versions of the Iris Valve including the well known Series-E Iris Diaphragm Valve.
Historically, in order to both control and monitor the position of these powered valves they have been fitted with open and closed limit switches and one, or perhaps two, intermediate position switches somewhere in between; often referred to as the ‘trickle’ position.
More recent developments including the Series K2P and A2P Iris valves have improved the ability to vary the diaphragm orifice still further by providing a pulse generator switch; offering the end user the ability to programme up to thirty positions between fully open and closed.
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Once programmed, the controller can utilise any 4-20mA or 0-10V input signal to give direct, closed loop, control over the open diameter of the valve orifice.
When this control module is used in conjunction with a powered Mucon Iris Valve, feedback from a weigh scale can be used to slowly close the valve as it approaches the target weight or in the case of a mill the feed rate can be controlled in real-time, based on an interpretation of the load on the drive motor.
The module also monitors torque and can be programmed to gently push to a closed position whilst protecting the motor from damage; we believe this will allow us to apply electrically powered Iris Valves to applications like big-bag neck choking, amongst many others.
If you want to know more about this story or the products and services offered by Mucon you can contact us in the following ways: Tel: +44 (0)1625 412000 E-mail: sales@mucon.com
Web: www.mucon.com/
