Digitrol of Swansea has specified shut-off valves and manifolds from Burkert Fluid Control Systems for a new range of cleaning chemical dispensing machines it is re-engineering for one of its customers. The 8-product and 4-product versions of the Ecovend needed re-engineering to improve their performance and reliability and ensure CE approval for the UK market. The units dispense a correct mix of highly concentrated chemicals and water at a pre-set dilution to produce cleaning fluids. The chemicals are stored in secure compartments and operator access is authorised using a pin number or fingerprint sensor, which also ensures that each operation is logged. David Coughlin of Digitrol said early prototypes tested in the field were stopped due to low water flow. Operators were topping up manually with tap water, which meant that the accuracy of the dispensing was not properly controlled. “We reviewed the whole dispensing operation and, as the original machines were already fitted with Burkert valves, we contacted the company for advice.” Burkert sales engineer Steve Tucker: “The machine’s manufacturer had fitted the same size shut-off valves to control the dispensing of chemicals and water, but the water valve specified was too small and could not deliver water fast enough. We recommended the addition of a customised manifold to improve reliability and overall control of the dispensing operation. To improve water dispensing, we suggested an increase in the manifold bore and a larger shut-off valve. With the new equipment fitted they achieved a doubling of the water flow in both Ecovend models and the machines now dispense at the designed rate.”
