Posted to News on 10th Jun 2011, 12:14
Festo launches CAFC protective hood for valve terminals
Festo says that its new CAFC protective hood for valve terminals dramatically reduces the cost of installing valve terminals by eliminating the need for a control cabinet in many applications. The CAFC hood fits directly over the valve terminal and occupies little space, making it a highly cost-effective and elegant alternative to large and cumbersome cabinets (the photo on the right shows the hinged hood open for access).
Most automation designers currently elect to house the system's valve terminal and constituent control modules in some form of protective cabinet. However, conventional cabinets often take up far more space than is actually required by their functional content. By creating a small, self-contained protective hood for its valve terminals, Festo has overcome this problem. Fabricated from low-cost aluminium and designed for minimal material usage, the hood can help system integrators and machine builders save up to 50 per cent of the space and 70 per cent of the cost of a standard control cabinet.
CAFC hoods are suitable for use with any Festo valve terminal, including the company's highly popular CPX multifunctional automation platform. It provides a high degree of protection against the ingress of contaminants such as dust, water droplets and particles, as well as guarding against impact damage and helping to prevent tampering with connections or settings. Typical applications include assembly and packaging machines, and process control systems.
ATEX applications
The hood is also suitable for automation designers seeking compliance with European ATEX directives that stipulate that some form of protective cabinet must be used for switchgear and controllers located in potentially explosive work environments. The CAFC is suitable for use in ATEX Zone 2 and Zone 22 environments, which are defined as areas where combustible gas, vapours or dust are not normally present in the air, but if they do occur they might, for a short period, form a potentially explosive atmosphere.
A further advantage of dispensing with a control cabinet is that the valve terminal can be located very close to the process or machine that it is controlling, thereby reducing tubing and cable lengths, improving the response time of pneumatic actuators and helping to minimise compressed air consumption.
The hood is available with a choice of lengths to suit customers' valve terminal configurations. When ordered at the same time as a CPX valve terminal, Festo will ensure that the appropriate size of hood is shipped. Festo can also supply any configuration of CPX valve terminal and its associated hood as a complete ready-to-install assembly, with both units pre-installed on a backing plate.
Follow the link for more information about the CAFC protective hood for valve terminals.
