Explore the future of pneumatics. Our blog offers expert insights, technical guides, and industry trends to help you innovate and optimize your automation systems.
A pneumatic valve armature (often called a plunger) is the moving ferromagnetic core inside a solenoid valve that reacts to a magnetic field to open or close the valve’s orifice. Ideally acting as the “heart” of the valve, it converts electrical energy into mechanical motion to precisely control airflow.
Valve shift time calculation requires analyzing both pneumatic factors (air pressure, flow capacity, valve size) and electrical factors (coil energization time, voltage supply, control signal characteristics) to determine total response time from signal input to complete valve position change.
Valve orifice geometry directly affects airflow characteristics through principles of fluid dynamics, with circular orifices providing laminar flow, sharp-edged designs creating turbulence and pressure drops, while optimized geometries like chamfered or radiused edges can improve flow coefficients by 15-30% compared to standard designs.
Internal pilot pressure directly controls valve actuation speed by determining the force available to overcome spring resistance and move valve spools, with higher pilot pressures reducing switching times from 50ms to 15ms, while insufficient pilot pressure can increase response delays by 200-300% in critical applications.
Pressure drop in valve manifold common passages occurs when flow velocity exceeds design limits, typically causing 5-15 PSI losses in undersized manifolds, with proper sizing requiring passage cross-sectional areas 2-3 times larger than individual valve ports to maintain system pressure and performance.
