Playing It Safe With Compressed Air: The role of valves in industrial automation

摘要

Maintaining a safe working environment is vital for all manufacturers and is an area subject to increasingly stringent legislation - not least in the area of compressed air equipment where the focus is on the need to address issues such as overpressure, sudden movement of parts, and treatment of exhaust air. To combat overpressure conditions, relief valves are widely used. This is a control valve with its outlet connected to a pressure system to enable system pressure to be held at a constant level. When selecting a valve, manufacturers should consider specific system criteria. All components should have a Safe Working Pressure (SWP) and a 10% overpressure limit - the maximum overpressure allowed with the relief valve in operation.