top of page
To see this working, head to your live site.
Is flowIO intended to work where valves open, then pumps turn on? Or can we run pumps prior to valve opening to create a back pressure?
Is flowIO intended to work where valves open, then pumps turn on? Or can we run pumps prior to valve opening to create a back pressure?
3 answers0 replies
Like
3 Comments
bottom of page
Dear Kyle,
You can probably consider adding a small air tank to store some of the compressed air from the pump. This air tank needs to be placed after the pump and before the solenoid valve. Since you have a stored quantity of compressed air in the air tank you can open the solenoid to get bursts of air supply for pulsatile flow even when the pump is off. I have not used the FlowIO myself but from the illustrations I reckon that the air manifold is quite small. If the manifold's volume is increased it would serve as an air tank. But extreme care is to be exercised when storing compressed air especially in 3D print components as any defect in 3D print can lead to cracks and subsequent explosion! So please be careful.
Generally with compressed air tank we hydraulically pressure test them to check their safety and reliability.
On a side note, in hydraulics we use an accumulator to store pressurized hydraulic fluid. Here is a good introduction to accumulators if you are interested. https://www.hydraulicspneumatics.com/technologies/accumulators/article/21883829/accumulators
Note: There are non return valves inside the pump and they can only take so much back pressure. You may need to add an additional non return valve at the outlet of the air pump to keep the internal valves of the pump from getting damaged with increased pressure.