It's no surprise that the cleaner your valve is, the less it will leak. However, cleanliness is also important in other ways, such as for medical applications where fluid flowing through the valves may be entering a person's body or for applications in the food and beverage industry. In these cases, the valves must not only be cleaned of any particulate matter, but also of any harmful substances used in the normal machining or assembly process.

To control flow without contaminating media such as blood, pharmaceuticals or reagents, a wide variety of medical devices and analytical equipment utilize media isolation valves. This article explores the characteristics of three main types of valves commonly used to isolate media—rocker isolation valves, diaphragm isolation valves, and pinch valves.

Clippard Technical Sales Specialist Mike Kettering demonstrates an easy way to troubleshoot a leak with a 4-way valve connected to a double acting cylinder.

There are many situations where it can be useful to mount a variety of valves with different functions together onto a single manifold. In this Tech Tip video, Scott Lamb, Technical Sales Manager at Clippard, demonstrates how easily this can be done as he mounts six valves onto one manifold to perform five different functions.