Rota Val, Chippenham, UK, has just been granted a European patent on its new Rotalign concept which will now be available on its latest range of Modular Fast Clean rotary valves. This allows maintenance work, such as replacement of bearings, to be carried out without the need to remove and strip down the valve, thereby saving a great deal of time. Bearings assembled to the tailpiece are a high precision sliding fit which results in assembly and removal being undertaken easily by hand. The Rotalign mechanism ensures that both bearings sit perfectly at 90 degrees to the axis of the bore. When fully assembled with the rotor engaged in the tailpiece, the Rotalign can compensate for any weight of the rotor by a built-in adjustment mechanism which enables the rotor to engage perfectly parallel to the bore, thus eliminating any risk of contact between rotor and bore. This ensures that once the rotor has been factory set it never has to be adjusted, even if fully removed from the end cover and then rebuilt.

 

Sales and marketing manager Steve Winton commented: “The new Rotalign assembly is an innovation that we feel will save users many production hours usually lost in maintenance downtime. Instead of taking a morning or perhaps a day to remove a rotary valve and strip it down, the bearings can now be changed in 30 minutes whilst the valve stays in situ” www.rotaval.co.uk

 

 

 

 

With Rotalign, once the rotor has been factory set it never has to be adjusted even after being fully removed and rebuilt