A “proportional” isolation valve can bring the next level of control and design for engineers, especially in life science industries.

The Eclipse proportional isolation valve [Image courtesy of Clippard]

So, typical proportional valve performance provides smooth, repeatable control of all types of inert gases and media — or at least that’s true if we do not use the word “isolation” in the valve’s description.

There are all types of isolation valves in the field today — pinch, rocker and diaphragm valves, to name a few types — where their job is to ensure that whatever media is processed through the wetted area does not encounter any other materials that can contaminate that media.

Here are four contributing factors that all need to be first and foremost when designing an isolation valve:

Taking in all the factors as mentioned earlier, we have with isolation valves and now putting them toward a “proportional” isolation valve brings a next level of control and design for engineers to consider, especially during the medical/life science industry evolution we’re going through now. Providing the ability to vary the isolated wetted areas flow path is paramount to sensitive application success.

Whatever the means of isolation, eliminating the pulse, shock, on/off characteristics of a standard isolation valve is achieved with a proportional isolation valve.  It’s now possible to achieve soft start/smooth delivery of sensitive media to the test area. Proportional isolation valves can also provide enhanced close-loop results — compensating for various viscosities, repeatable flowrates, positive and/or negative pressure variation, bi-directional control, latching capabilities at specific flow rates and more.

Doug Paynter is proportional valve and controls product manager for Clippard in Cincinnati. He has over 30 years of application experience within the industrial fluid power, medical and life science industries.

The opinions expressed in this blog post are the author’s only and do not necessarily reflect those of MedicalDesignandOutsourcing.com or its employees.

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Copyright © 2021 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS