Festo’s new VAEM valve controller is compact and energy-efficient

Small, light, energy-efficient, fast, and precise ‒ the VAEM overcomes the challenges found in micro-dispensing liquids.

Technical innovation keeps on coming at Festo Canada, and the latest example is the manufacturer’s new VAEM valve controller for multi-head liquid micro-dispensing. This is a compact unit, designed for use in pharmaceutical production and laboratory applications, which offers individualized control and calibration for as many as eight solenoid valves.

Lightweight and energy-efficient, the VAEM controller is the perfect pick for applications that require high speed and a low coefficient of variation, or CV.

Rapid and precise valve control

This valve controller is the result of efforts to design the company’s next generation of multi-head micro-dispensing systems, on behalf of Festo’s team of life-science technologists. These scientists determined that the company needed a more advanced solenoid-valve controller to meet their goals for precision and speed. As the technologists made progress on the new product, they imbued many important advantages into it, like energy efficiency, minimal heat generation, ease of use, a compact size, and the ability to compensate for flow variation in different valves.

The VAEM can open a valve in less than two milliseconds, and laboratory benchmark testing found that rapid and precise control of the valve reduced the CV from three per cent to under ½ a per cent. It is fast and easy to calibrate the flow through individual channels, which boosts precision across multi-head systems.

Another benefit is the “hit and hold” strategy for reduced energy consumption. A short burst of high current “hits” the open position, and then the valve controller switches to a minimum current to “hold” the open position for a specified time. By using current instead of voltage to control valves, the VAEM lowers heat buildup and helps maintain specified flow.

Measuring 92 by 100 by 28 millimetres, the VAEM is suitable for 2/2- and 3/2-way solenoid valves and features RS232 communication. Festo plans for future iterations to have Ethernet, Modbus TCP, and IO-Link options. Users can pre-calibrate dispense heads and save the control parameters for standalone operation with a PC-based graphical user interface. The external 24-volt trigger input can synchronize the controller with other systems.

For more information, contact Festo Canada.

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