Piston Valve Applications: Mixers in Vacuum

M&M Piston actuated valves can be used in a wide variety of applications, in this blog post we are going to provide some examples of the type of applications that they have been used in and the type of valve that we would recommend for the application.

Piston actuated valves used in industrial mixers in vacuum:

The equipment is used to mix and homogenize liquid substances in manufacturing creams and other compounds in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. Stages and mixing times depend on the manufacturers’ recipes.

The machine is made up of a control board, a mixing chamber, a shaking unit, a vacuum pump and a hydraulic circuit for warming up and cooling the mixing chamber.

The shaking unit consists of two slow shakers and a fast shaker (mixer) rotating in opposite directions to homogenize and prevent stagnation of highly viscous products or with a high specific gravity.

1^st stage – Vacuum

By a vacuum pump (V), valve (A) creates a – 0,5 bar depression in the mixing chamber to prevent air from spoiling or deteriorating the quality of products during mixing operations.

2^nd stage – Filling and Mixing

Liquid ingredients (ex. glycerine, water) are poured into the mixing chamber and the shaking unit starts rotating.

3^rd stage – Warm up

While mixing it might be necessary to warm up substances that do not melt at room temperature. The outside of the chamber is warmed up both by valve (B), that controls steam up to 150°C from an external generator, and by valve (C), that controls hot water at 90-95°C and 3 bar pressure from an external boiler. The temperature inside the chamber is controlled by a thermic probe connected to the PLC, which operates the opening of the valves according to the requested temperature.

4^th stage – Cooling

When products has been homogenized, the chamber is cooled externally by valve (D), that controls cold water and glycol at –10° and 3 bar pressure, coming from an external chiller.

5^th stage – Ejection

By valve (E) connected to an external pump (P), the chamber is brought under pressure at 2 bar so that products can be ejected into commercial containers.

The valve that we would recommend for this application would be:

You can view the V-Flow Solutions range of M&M Piston actuated valves here:

V-Flow Solutions: Piston Valves


You can read the rest of V-Flows blogs here.

M&M Angle seat piston valves 

M&M piston valves are manufactured in Italy, using the highest quality materials for a high quality product.

M&M piston actuated valves use an external control media to pilot the actuator, where a piston valve is directly connected to the main seal that closes onto the main orifice, thereby controlling the flow of liquids and gases.

M&M piston valves are highly recommended under these conditions:

• Media containing dirt particles
• Highly viscous media (up to 600 cST (80°E); 1 centistoke = 1 mm²/s)
• High flow volumes
• High temperatures
• Damp environments or hazardous locations

The versions of M&M Piston actuated valves available are:

Technical Information

The main seal material used in piston actuated valves:

A modified PTFE has been used as the main seal material since 2004, when it replaced the original PTFE material seal.

The modified PTFE seal provides these benefits over the previous verision:

• Lower porosity and permeability
• Fewer void spaces
• Higher elasticity
• Reduced deformation under load
• Better chemical resistance to controlled media
• Smoother surface and improved design flexibility 

The standard bonnet seals consist of 2 'V'-shaped FKM gaskets and a package of 25% graphite-filled PTFE gaskets.

High temperature Piston actuated valves:

M&M can offer a piston valve that can be used up to 200°C, provided that the valve pressure limits are respected.
The main differences, in regards to the materials in this design, are as follows:

• Change of the actuator material: From standard PA6 to PA66 filled with 30% fibreglass
• All valves with DN > 25 with fixed plug design (to withstand turbulence caused by steam at high speed)
• Special design of bonnet chevrons, all are made of 25% graphite-filled PTFE

10 Reasons to use a piston actuated valve:

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Piston actuated valves can be found here, on our website:
http://v-flowsolutions.co.uk/actuated-valves/pneumatic/piston-valves/

For any other products please look on our website:
http://v-flowsolutions.co.uk/

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If you think V-Flow can help you then please contact us:

Telephone: +44 (0)1234 855888

Email: sales@v-flowsolutions.co.uk

Fax: +44  (0)1234 857775

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If you have a problem with flow control, we will find the solution.