EXAIR Blog

Valve keepers

In some of my previous blogs I’ve written about rebuilding engines at home, usually finding a decent car that suffered top-end engine damage.  Sometimes the root cause is a lack of oil pressure, other times it is a failed component in the valve train, or something as simple as a broken timing belt.  In any case, these rebuilds tend to involve removing the cylinder heads from the engine, disassembling them and replacing the damaged components.

These valve keepers need to be pneumatically conveyed

A commonly damaged component with timing belt or valve train failure is the valve.  And, removing the valve means removing the valve keepers, which are the items shown above.

I received an email from our distributor in Italy, searching for a solution to convey these valve keepers at a rate of approximately 5000 per hour over a distance of 3 meters and a height of 4 meters.  The valve keepers are quite light, weighing just 0.29 grams each – a perfect fit for use with the Line Vac.

When considering a conveyance application we take into account several variables such as:

Bulk density of the material

Shape/size of the material

Conveying distance

Conveying height

Required conveyance rate

Available compressed air supply

Given the need to convey 5000 valve keepers per hour at a weight of 0.29 grams/valve keeper, we only needed to move ~1.5kg per hour for this application.  When considering the height and distance involved, and the size of the valve keepers, we can comfortable convey these units with a ¾” Line Vac or a 1” Line Vac.  Using 10.7 and 14.7 SCFM, respectively, these options provide a suitable solution with a low compressed air demand.

If you have an application in need of a compressed air solution, contact an EXAIR Application Engineer.  We’ll be happy to help.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

1st photo credit to Benjamin Hirsch (Creative Commons License)