Shut-off solenoid valves for curtains and air heaters

Every day, in many places, automatic garage doors and emergency exit doors are used many times. The most important function is performed by the drive, which is a kind of command center and is responsible for the reliable operation of the automation. When considering the choice of the right drive, it is worth answering the question at the beginning: how many times on average will the gate or door be opened and closed? Why is it so important?

Let's imagine the following situation: after starting the drive, the gate rises, but at the same time the thermal drive of the curtain control valve is only just starting its laborious, several dozen-second operation. Then, cold air enters the room, effectively cooling it down.

In turn, after closing the gate or door, fans are switched on to distribute hot air throughout the space until the building management system registers the temperature level previously set as appropriate, which will take some time. This generates large losses of heat energy and consequently affects the high costs of heating buildings.

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In the case of facilities with a much larger number of automatically controlled gates and doors, such as car parks, railway stations or airport terminals, these losses are even greater. However, it is possible to limit heat energy losses and reduce heating costs by using Danfoss shut-off solenoid valves for air curtains and heaters.

Application of shut-off solenoid valves for air curtains and heaters:

• Automatic garage doors - underground car parks
• Emergency exit doors (fire doors)
• Automatic doors (photocell) in facilities with variable traffic intensity, e.g. at railway stations
• Garage doors at loading docks: logistics centers, warehouses

A typical application is automatic doors controlled by a photocell, which registers a passer-by at a distance of about 3 m. A person covers this distance in 4-5 steps in about 3 seconds. When opening the door, the air curtain should provide an effective thermal barrier.

How do solenoid shut-off valves work?

The essence of the operation is based on the use of an electromagnet, which rapidly changes the position of the regulating element, influencing the opening/closing of the flow of the medium through the valve. This phenomenon is commonly used, for example, in remote-controlled gate door locks and probably each of us has had contact with them.

The main advantage of controlling solenoid valves , and with a motor actuator is the speed of switching on. This allows in less frequented rooms to switch on the air curtain using a motion sensor detecting an approaching person, so the heating is switched on only for the time needed for the person to pass, and not continuously. On the scale of a large facility with many air curtains, this gives significant energy savings.

Depending on the control system used, you can choose a valve with the appropriate control voltage and coil power from a wide range of models, resulting in a solution that provides instant flow switching on and off. The opening time of the solenoid valve , depending on the pressure value, is from 0.05 to 0.2 s, while the opening time of the valve with an actuator is over 1 minute.

Example diagram of a heating installation using an electrovalve in heaters of various power:

(*) - flow value for water at a differential pressure of 1 bar

Check out Danfoss shut-off solenoid valves in the Onninen offer