Festo VTEP proportional valve terminal

Festo has announced a high-precision VTEP proportional valve terminal that it says opens up new application areas.

Festo’s Controlled Pneumatics is a compressed air technology that makes pressure control for the VTEP highly sensitive, down to less than 1 mbar, making it suitable for applications such as wafer polishing or patch clamping in life science. In addition, Controlled Pneumatics uses high-precision piezo valves to reduce compressed air consumption by up to 50%.

Festo says the VTEP offers high precision, fast response times and dynamic control, helping to speed up production and at the same time produce manufactured products that are of a higher quality.

At less than 120 mm wide, VTEP is compact while supporting 10 working channels. There are three versions, 2-, 3- and 5-way, which can all be easily integrated for multi-channel applications. Pressure and vacuum can be combined in the control range of 6 bar.

The directly controlled VTEP uses piezo technology which, together with the appropriate control technology, makes the pneumatics more precise, fast and economical compared to solenoid valves. This offers additional benefits in that the valves are quiet, free of wear, have no particle abrasion and don’t generate any heat. The valve terminal is also free of copper, nickel and zinc, making it suitable for battery production and other industrial segments in which these materials are disruptive.