Pneumatic Manifold Recommendation

[Andrew Bates]

I'm wondering if anyone who has used either Festo's or SMC's or anyones else pneumatic manifolds can give me a recommendation. I know we can just use a bunch of individual solenoids but a manifold with the solenoids would clean up and simplify the plumbing. We are looking for preferably the ability to control up to 5 cylinders, although we could probably work with 4. So if anyone has any experience using these and could give me a recommendation I would appreciate.

Thanks,

[balloons]

Not sure, but in general I try to avoid Festo. Not sure about the new solenoids they provided last year, but the quality of the previous ones were just horrendous.

[sanddrag]

I have some experience with SMC SY3000 series valves and manifolds. Take a look here:

http://www.smcetech.com/CC_host/page...c705e5f1d35 2

[sanddrag]

I'll post again, instead of editing in case the OP has e-mail notification or something.

I think this is the PDF ordering guide you want to look at for the SMC SY3000 series: http://content.smcetech.com/pdf/SY3.5.7.9000.pdf

[theun4gven]

If you are going to use a common manifold, I'd recommend using ported body solenoids with a manifold that only contains common P, EA, and EB ports. These manifolds are machined from a single block and can get pretty heavy which means only having these three ports instead of all five cuts down on the block size pretty significantly. The difference here being that your A and B outputs will come out of the top of the solenoid instead of the side of the manifold.

Using sanddrag's first link above you would probably want to choose from "Individual Wiring Type Manifold." The image shows ported body solenoids with a common P, EA, and EB manifold and base mounted solenoids with a common A, B, P, EA, and EB manifold. It's pretty easy to see the size difference between the two manifolds and get an idea as to how your tubing will run.