This is the most relevant forum section I could find. Should have said help finding valves...

I'm looking for cheap (OEM) NC solenoid pinch valves for silicon tubing of about any (smaller) size for a personnal project. I've spent quite a bit of time looking on the 'net and almost everything I find is designed for medical or scientific research = big money :(. Need minimally 16 - don't need anything to handle extreme pressures, temperatures, etc. Seems like they should be cheap! Typical best deal on 3/8" valves that I find are > $50 each. They don't appear to be more than a $1 solenoid, a spring, and a piece of plastic. I'd be super-duper-duper excited to find some at around the $15 price range. Any ideas? TIA

When you say "pinch valve", what do you mean? Are you talking about something that puts pressure on the outside of a piece of tubing to close it off? I've never seen anything like that used in industry. Every valve I've seen has a solenoid-driven metal "spool" with seals, inside a bored metal block. The solenoid drives the spool one way or another, diverting the air to various ports drilled into the metal block. I haven't priced out valves lately but $50/ea sounds about right.

Have you looked on ebay? pneumatics seem to go for dirt cheap on there for some reason. You might get a nice, big valve stack for under $50!

I'm not surprised that you guys had never heard of solenoid pinch valves - I hadn't either until recently. They are an incredibly simple device. A spring forces the tube closed via a little plastic piece. The solenoid opens the valve. That's it! I can buy the same solenoids for $1. Not much use for them in manufacturing. They seem to be used in research labs and for medical apparatus. The point is that you can have a sterile liquid never touch anything but the tubing. When I said $50, that's the very cheapest that I can find any in bulk. Makes sense if you have pressure requirements, but this is a VERY SIMPLE device and I will probably need a whole slew of 'em.

This link is a "nicer" one...
http://www.clarksol.com/html/prodspecsPK_Valve.htm

No luck on ebay. Only solenoid pinch valves are larger than I need and designed for NOS system. Thanks for the input.

Interesting idea. But according to their specs, it has a max. pressure rating of 0.5 bar.. Not of much use in an industrial envoronment!

Pinch valves are also popular for applying glue and any time you want to control the flow of a fluid but don't want the control system to touch the fluid.

I did a search also and couldn't find anything less than the $50~$60 range. I remember a buddy of mine was using them in his homemade beer making operation but still the cost was higher than what you were hoping for.

jstolaruk,
This is for an appliance project similar to what your friend was doing. Does anyone have OEM/Distributer contacts who might know who to get these things from a little cheaper - I'd probably be in for 100 or so. The silly things should be so cheap...

I'm sure the manufacturing costs ARE cheap. But given that these are designed for medical applications, I'm sure $25 of every $50 valve goes to a legal department :)

A lot of 100 valves may allow you to bypass the distributor right to the mfg, or at lease get you a healthy quantity discount.

I think to release the cam-lock or drawback the spring that is used to pinch tubing to stop flow may take a pretty good healthy sized solenoid, that maybe the reason for the cost.