pic: Pneumatic Gate Valve Actuator

[MrBasse]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

Matt looked into using ball valves, and could not find any that would work with the pneumatic cylinders we had available. They have too much friction, for one thing.

Weight of the complete valve assembly is actually relatively low, although I don't have a number and it's all assembled now so I can't weigh it. You can visit a hardware store and look over the valves, and see how the weight compares between gate valves and ball valves, if you'd like.

We looked at ball valves as well and settled on the same solution you did. We found the gate valve to allow a larger initial flow of air over the ball valve. A shorter stroke makes more happen with the gate valve. Also they are cheap, easy to replace and take such a small amount of modification to make work with pneumatics it was a no brainer for us. Looks like clean work, should last you a long time too.

We actually changed out to a check valve from a well running in reverse on our new design. We use a cylinder to pull the barrel against the valve to unseat the valve and let air flow, then the air pressure left in the storage tank is used to reseal the valve when we let off the cylinder. It works pretty well but can let the o-ring blow out if you get too over zealous with the shirt flinging air pressure.