I had the privilege of attending a press conference and in depth booth tour of Festo at the recent PackExpo. For those who don’t know Festo, they are a top line supplier of air cylinders, solenoid valves and other pneumatic devices. What I had not realized was how much they were also into servo motors and controls so it was an eye opener for me.

One of the things that caught my eye was a bit more mundane. I have spent most of my life telling operators and technicians to always open valves slowly. Opening a valve, especially a pneumatic valve, can shock the system. This can lead to potential damage.

Festo was showing what they call their Soft-Start valves. These are a series of manually, pneumatically and electrically operated on-off compressed air supply valves. They can be opened quickly but an internal feature causes the downstream pressure to build slowly until equalized. Once equalized, the valve allows full flow.