Valve Position Sensing for Mission Critical Flow Applications.

Systems like municipal water supplies, sewage treatment plants, massive cooling and lubrication systems used in chemical, petrochemical, and the oil and gas industry, all share one thing in common: large flow valves that are critically opened and closed by computer controls to insure proper system operation, or prevent critical safety thresholds from being violated. Flow rates in these systems can be 10’s of thousands of gallons per hour at high pressure so valve control has to work every time and failure is not an option.

It turns out that valve position sensing is one of the ideal applications for our line of CPI waterproof switches. To insure that valve positions are indeed fully closed or fully open, variations of our sealed momentary or toggle switches are mounted in a customized bracket that is affixed to the valve housing. Commonly used for example, are the E1 Momentary Contact Limit Switches. These switches are completely sealed in a watertight neoprene or santoprene enclosure depending on your temperature requirements with leads of any specified length extended from the housing.

This basic sealedwaterproof switch designis then used in any of dozens of mounting and actuator bracket combinations. Most common to the valve class of sensing is the simulated roller mount. As the valve arm slides over the roller in one direction it actuates the switch, sending confirmation to the control system that the valve is open/closed, and releasing when the valve moves the other way.

In the dirty, wet, extreme temperature environment that our switch commonly finds itself it, our sealed pendant mechanism is designed to survive, for thousands or even millions of cycles.

Cold Weather Switch Performance

While our switches can operate at high temperatures up to 120F, one of the more unique abilities of our designs is actually thier ability to operate at low temperatures, without sticking or freeze up. CPI engineers learned long ago the tricks related to insuring low temperature operation and making this engineering part of our manufacturing process. CPI switches can be specified for low temperature operations to -40F.

Make the Switch To CPI Today!

Original content posted on https://www.cpi-nj.com/blog/valve-position-sensing-for-mission-critical-flow-applications/