Technical designers always try to position pneumatic valves as close to actuators as possible, because shorter tubing lengths reduce the required compressed air by up to 20 percent. However, common valves are usually too large and heavy for handling applications. With Rexroth's new generation of extremely compact and lightweight Advanced Valve AV03 valve systems, engineers now have a lot more freedom and can arrange pneumatics decentrally, thus increasing efficiency.

Compared to the market standard, Rexroth has halved the weight of the new valves by using resistant high-performance polymers and reducing the number of parts. A further plus: The required space has also been cut by 45 percent. How did they do it? Developers arranged the valve components at an angle and optimized the supply and exhaust channels, thus reducing flow losses. Users profit from a flow improvement of 40 percent, allowing them to substantially lower the supply pressure and boosting their energy efficiency.

The new valve system also fulfills engineers' demands for customized automation solutions. With 25-pin D-sub connection, manifolds can be configured in increments of 1 after the second valve position, and after the fourth valve position with 44-pin D-sub and Field bus connections. The new AV03 can control up to 24 coils with 25-pin D-sub connection, up to 40 coils with 44-pin D-sub connection, and up to 128 coils with Field bus connection. Nowadays, more and more users also implement different pressure zones in a single valve system to achieve further savings. The new valve systems allow up to ten supply plates for this exact purpose.

In addition to improving the energy efficiency, the new AV03 also fulfills expectations for simple engineering. Users can connect the valve systems electrically using multipole or fieldbus connections, with integrated I/O modules, depending on their configuration. Thanks to the option of directly connecting sensors to the valve electronics, fewer cables have to be fed back to the control cabinet.