Pneumatic and solenoid-powered technology to support your most demanding hygienic and single-use technology applications.
Pinch valves pinch or squeeze flexible, disposable tubing to control or shut off the flow of media, often high-purity liquids. Solenoid-operated pinch valves use electric current to open and close, while pneumatic pinch valves operate by using compressed air. Emerson produces a variety of pinch valves that assure the process media integrity in pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, diagnostics, and food and beverage markets, as well as in single-use technology (SUT) applications.
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ASCO pneumatic pinch valves control the flow of the media by using compressed air to operate the pinching mechanism and open or close the valve. Such valves are designed to assure hermetic separation of the process media within the flexible, single-use tubing from valve control mechanism. Typical applications include chromatography skids, tangential flow filtration skids (TFF), single-use bioreactors, and bottling and dispensing skids.
ASCO™ 273 and 373 Pneumatic Pinch Valves
Available in 2-way or 3-way and normally closed or normally open design, with a large range of body sizes that can accommodate varying tubing widths.
In solenoid pinch valves, actuation is controlled by an electrical current that passes through a coil, which generates a magnetic field that moves a plunger into an on or off position. They come in a variety of designs to work with different tubing diameters and prevent contamination from particulate matter and changes in environment temperature.
ASCO 284 2-Way Solenoid Pinch Valve
2-way solenoid pinch valves for use with highly aggressive or high-purity liquids in analytical and sterile and aseptic systems, and food applications.
ASCO 384 3-Way Solenoid Pinch Valve
3-way solenoid pinch valve with hermetic separation of control mechanism and fluid tubing to assure maximum purity of liquids
ASCO S170 Pinch Valve
Stepper motor pinch valves that shut off media without turbulent flows or dead spaces, and suitable for most analytical, medical and food applications.
Pinch valve technology is essential to applications that must manipulate and precisely control often aggressive or high-purity fluids at microscale. Available in a range of sizes, they help control flow of samples, reagents, reactants and facilitate analysis where fluid mixes must be precise without any direct contact with the medium. Microfluidic pinch valves commonly operate in drug delivery systems, microreactors, chemical analysis, personalize medical devices, and point-of-care diagnostic devices.
ASCO 284 2-Way Solenoid Pinch Valve
2-way solenoid pinch valves for use with highly aggressive or high-purity liquids in analytical and sterile and aseptic systems, and food applications.
ASCO 384 3-Way Solenoid Pinch Valve
3-way solenoid pinch valve with hermetic separation of control mechanism and fluid tubing to assure maximum purity of liquids
ASCO S170 Pinch Valve
Stepper motor pinch valves that shut off media without turbulent flows or dead spaces, and suitable for most analytical, medical and food applications.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Pinch Valves
Pinch valves are highly versatile and can be used in applications that require a high level of precision and flow control, such as handling high-purity liquids, as well industrial settings where they control the flow of abrasive or corrosive media.
Solenoid and pneumatic pinch valves are important components in the production of vaccines, drugs, and other biopharmaceutical products, particularly those that rely on single-use technology (SUT) and others where sterile environments are necessary. Miniature solenoid pinch valves are often used in medical devices, such as continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) machines, and laboratory equipment, such as chromatography skids.
Pinch valves operate with flexible tubing through which media flows, and which can be “pinched” by the valve to reduce or stop flow. They can be activated by different types of power. Most common are solenoid pinch valves, which open and shut by way of an electromagnetic coil, and pneumatic pinch valves, which operate under the power of compressed air.
Pinch valves come in a variety of sizes. Some solenoid pinch valves are microfluidic valves, which control very small amounts of fluid and are common medical and diagnostic applications, where they provide highly precise flow control of blood, chemicals, or other aggressive fluids.
Many pinch valves are essential in single use technologies (SUT) that are common to biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical manufacturing. SUT applications depend on plastic, disposable bioreactors and tubing, and do not need to undergo the cleaning and sterilization procedures (CIP/SIP).
Pinch valves in SUT assure hermetic separation of the process media from the valve control mechanism. They are available in a large range of body sizes to accommodate a variety of tubing sizes. Larger pinch valves incorporate safety guards to protect the operator from the pinching mechanism.
At Emerson, we understand the challenges of repeatability and reliability in biotechnology process manufacturing - from test bench, to production line, all the way to market.
