New proportional valve terminal enhances precision and efficiency in pneumatic systems

16 October, 2024

Thanks to this technology, the VTEP provides extremely sensitive pressure control, down to less than 1 mbar — perfect for applications such as wafer polishing or patch clamping in life science. In addition, Controlled Pneumatics from Festo uses high-precision piezo valves to reduce compressed air consumption by up to 50%. This level of control enables the VTEP to speed-up production while ensuring that manufactured goods are of a higher quality.

Festo says the VTEP is an example of how its industrial automation technology makes machines and systems faster and more precise, helping customers in the electronics and semiconductor industries, battery production, life sciences, textile manufacturing, and others to gain decisive competitive advantages.

At less than 120mm wide, Festo says the VTEP is the most compact proportional valve terminal on the market for pressure control with 10 independent work channels. There are three versions, with 2-, 3-, and 5-valve positions, which can all be easily integrated for multi-channel applications. Pressure and vacuum can be combined in the control range of -1 up to 6 bar positive pressure. The individual valves can be controlled to control the pressure, block, or exhaust the system pressure.

The directly controlled VTEP uses piezo technology which, together with the appropriate control technology, makes the pneumatics extremely precise, fast, and economical. Additional benefits include a valve that is quiet, free of wear, and has no particle abrasion. They also don’t generate any heat, which delivers more stable control behaviour over time. The proportional valve terminal is also free of copper, nickel, and zinc, making it very suitable for battery production and other industrial segments in which these materials are disruptive.

During wafer production, the variable contact pressure of the individual polishing chambers on the polishing unit can be controlled extremely precisely by the VTEP. The even pressure guarantees excellent quality results across the entire processing surface, even when polishing delicate wafers. VTEP terminal valves can also be used as pilot valves for larger media valves. In photolithography, for example, a light-resistant layer has to be precisely applied to wafers. A VTEP-controlled suck-back function ensures that no excess coating escapes.

The VTEP proportional valve terminal is also suitable for many applications in web control, such as the production of battery foils. VTEP communicates over Ethercat in real time, and the valves react at lightning speed. Perfect timing guarantees significantly improved process reliability in the event of unexpected forces acting on the web.

Controlled Pneumatics represents a significant development in the pneumatic sector, offering improved precision and energy efficiency. The VTEP proportional valve terminal is an important contribution, combining several valves together into a compact and easily controlled solution that is easier and faster for machine builders to integrate into their control architecture.

For further information please visit: www.festo.com/vtep

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