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When TECO Pneumatic began doing business with Fabco-Air thirty-four years ago, their product offering was fairly limited. Today we rely on Fabco for a complete range of pneumatic actuators and valves that includes slide units, air-to-air boosters, and both NFPA standard and roundline, non-repairable, air cylinders. But the heart of the Fabco line remains (and will always be) the low profile Pancake® air cylinder. Mr. Alfred W. Schmidt, the founder of Fabco-Air, invented and named the round body Pancake® air cylinder in 1958. He needed what we now call low profile air cylinders for a tooling application, and there were none on the market. (Low profile cylinders are designed to have the shortest possible overall length for a given stroke.) Please note the "®" in the product name. Imitators can only offer a "compact" cylinder. Fabco was first with the low profile product and a close look at what they make and how they make it will convince you that they still do it best. Fabco offers more features and options, better quality, higher strength, cleaner appearance and far longer cycle life in their Pancake® cylinder products than anyone else. Every Fabco Pancake® cylinder with a bore larger than 3/4" begins life as solid aluminum bar stock. The piston bore and rod bearing relief are machined at the same time to insure concentricity. It is important to note that the rod end of the cylinder and the cylinder body remain monolithic aluminum bar stock; only the cylinder rod pierces the rod end. Unlike some of their imitators, Fabco does not rely on a snap ring or wire retainer to keep the rod bushing in place. This one-piece body and bushing support is the key to the durability of Pancake® cylinders.
The basic Pancake® cylinder line incorporates eight bore sizes, from 1/2" to 4" and strokes that run to 4". The rod bearing is long lasting, tough Teflon® based Duralon® and is installed from the inside of the cylinder to insure that it cannot be forced out of the cylinder by piston impact. Magnalube-G grease is used to prelube these cylinders. In most applications, no further lubrication is necessary. Many, many options are available on Pancake® cylinders. We know of no one who does a better job on special actuators than Fabco – more than 40% of the products they build for our customers are special in some way. Fabco provides us with an exemplary series of technical catalogs, which are clear, concise and complete. Their website (which you can access through www.tecopneumatic.com) has information on the complete Fabco-Air product line, downloadable CAD files and a new cylinder and valve size calculator. If you need a lot of cylinder in a small package, please ask your TECO salesperson about the Fabco Pancake® line.
Proportional Control of Gas and Liquids from Kelly Pneumatics TECO Pneumatic is very pleased to introduce a new product line and a new valve manufacturer to Northern California. Kelly Pneumatics (KPI) brings us an interesting range of proportional valves for the control of either liquid or gaseous fluids. The core of the KPI offering is a pair of 2-way proportional valves. Each is intended to provide control of fluid flow that tracks your electronic input signal. Both valves provide low hysteresis. They will control air or oxygen, distilled, de-ionized or tap water, petroleum and petrochemicals. Most corrosive liquids and gasses are not a problem for these valves.
The mini proportional valve will work at pressures up to 100 psi. It can control flow from 0 – 500 milliliters of water per minute. The available voltages are 5, 10 & 20 volts. Power consumption is 1.9 watts at 23° C, up to 2.3 watts max. The mini valve is available with 10-32 inline ports or a 10-32 threaded male stud for manifold mounting. BUNA-N, Viton® and EPDM seals are available. We anticipate this valve being of interest to our friends in the medical products industries, in applications for liquid and gas chromatography and anywhere that corrosive liquids or gasses must be controlled. The midsize proportional valve is similar in function, but can control flows up to 2900 milliliters of water per minute. Power consumption is 4.8 watts at 23° C and 5.3 watts max. Ports may be specified as 1/8" or 1/4" NPT. KPI has incorporated their mini proportional valve in a pair of pressure control devices; "electronic air pressure regulators". Given either an external dynamic or static input control signal (or an onboard adjustable set-point value,) the KPI electronic air pressure regulator provides closed-loop, proportional output pressure control. The pressure range is 1 – 100 psi with pressure accuracy +/- 0.2 psi typical. Controlled flow is up to 6 lpm / .25 scfm through 10-32F or 5/32" OD tube fittings. This device requires a 24 VDC power supply and accepts a 0 – 5 VDC input signal. A similar unit with an on board booster will control flows up to 515 lpm / 18.2 SCFM. This unit has 1/4" NPT supply and output ports and can be plugged into a standard 110VAC wall outlet if necessary. We are excited about this range of products, which allow us to address problems previously beyond our reach. We will be demonstrating KPI hardware in our booth at the SemiCon show in July. Data sheets on these KPI products are available at the TECO Pneumatic website, www.tecopneumatic.com. Your TECO sales person has sample hardware available for testing.
Baumer Electric Introduces The World's Smallest Laser Distance Sensor Baumer Electric continues to shrink the size and enhance the performance of their broad range of noncontact measuring devices. TECO Pneumatic is happy to introduce the new OADM 12 ultra-miniature laser displacement sensor from Baumer. This device is tiny. The 12 x 37 x 34mm envelope its about the size of a matchbox – remember those? Within this package is a completely self-contained laser distance sensor that provides resolution of 2 micrometers and response time as fast as 250 microseconds. The OADM 12 generates a standard 4 – 20 mA, distance proportional analog output that integrates easily into most industrial control systems. This sensor is teachable; you can easily program the desired measuring window in the field with an onboard, single-function button. At 37 grams, the OADM 12 is light enough to mount directly on the moving parts of automated assembly and robotic devices. At the same time, its tough IP67 zinc die-cast housing, glass optics and extended life laser LED insure that it will thrive in tough industrial applications. For complete information on this remarkable sensor, please visit the Baumer Electric section of the TECO website, www.tecopneumatic.com. Here you will find information on the complete OADM line of laser sensors, application data, a thorough analysis of Baumer and competitive products and further details on specifications, wiring diagrams, performance and dimensions. If you need a really small laser sensor, ask your TECO salesperson to see a sample of the OADM 12.
Custom Stainless Steel Solenoid Valve Manifolds At TECO Pneumatic we continue to find interesting applications for the Humphrey Products HK5 solenoid valve. The HK5 is a remarkably flexible product. It provides multi-function operation, with a single solenoid operator driving a unique diaphragm-poppet. Two diaphragms mounted on a common stem are the only moving parts and the solenoid coil is isolated from the media passing through the valve. This makes the HK5 ideal for use with aggressive media and liquid fluids. Recently a customer approached TECO with a valve-manifolding problem that required dealing with an aggressive media. As a critical part of a device that measures the composition of diesel exhaust gas, the customer was using Teflon valves on a Teflon manifold to select from among several sensor inputs. The manifold was large, each valve required a separate grommet-type electrical connection, and the fittings in the manifold were prone to being stripped, which ruined the expensive manifold.
In the photograph, you can see TECO Pneumatics’ design for a pair of custom stainless steel manifolds for this application. We used Humphrey HK5 valves with fluorocarbon and stainless steel wetted parts to manage the hot, sooty, hydrocarbon-laced exhaust gas. In addition to providing four times the flow in a significantly smaller package, the plug-in electrical connections on the HK5 allow the customer to make a much simpler wiring harness. If you have an aggressive fluid control problem, please ask your TECO sales person about the Humphrey Products HK5 valve. Information is available, of course, on our website.
- Arthur Schopenhauer - "Only man has dignity; therefore, only man can be funny."
- Anon. - "Baseball is only a game. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in
Arizona." - Chauncey Depew - "If God had intended for man to engage in strenuous sports, He would
have given us better knees."
TECO Pneumatic is moving! No, not from our home in Pleasanton, but we are moving the location of our booth at the Semicon Show. We will still be in the North Hall of Moscone Center in San Francisco on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of July, but our new location is Booth 6254. We will be displaying a variety of new hardware from our suppliers, including much of the material described in this newsletter. With the pace of business picking up, this should be a particularly exciting show. If you plan to be at Semicon and need a credential, please contact your TECO sales person or call our office.
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TECO
Pneumatic Inc., Box 1809, Pleasanton, CA 94566 |
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