Norgren M/50901 pneumatic timer helps adhesive plant to avoid sticky safety situations

When MGA Controls were called in to provide control instrumentation at an adhesive company in the North West of England, a simple Norgren M/50901 pneumatic timer and pneumatic cylinder solution was all it took to guarantee the safety of their customer's workforce.

Norgren's adhesives plant application

The hazardous environment of an adhesives plant presents uniquely challenging safety considerations for manufacturers. One such company, based in Preston, Lancashire turned to MGA Controls to help them to maintain their safety controls, having drawn a blank with several other competitor suppliers.

Jon Birch, Internal Sales Manager at MGA Controls, said: “This manufacturer's business involves powders and quite aggressive solvents. They have these large chemical bins where they have to pour in the solution. It's like a storage area that staff have to lift a lid up and pour the solution in.

“But they were thinking that this could be a problem because of the health and safety implications. If it's flammable, and they don't pull this extraction valve soon enough, it could go 'boom' and blow up in their face.

“So they wanted to design a solution that can basically automatically lock the lid of this bin. So that staff can't physically open it until the extraction valve has been running for 20 seconds.”

The adhesives manufacturer had engaged several suppliers to no avail. However, MGA Controls knew exactly what was needed. “They kept getting stuck (excuse the pun!) at this point, where they were able to programme the cylinders to retract and open the door but after the operator has pulled the valve it needs to have a delay.”

Norgren PRA Pneumatic Cylinder solution

The solution, from Norgren, although simple proved highly effective. “Norgren have what's known as an M/50901 pneumatic timer,” continued Jon. “It's essentially quite a basic product but nobody else manufacturers them. It's a little timer, which is purely driven by air.

“So it links in to their existing system and when the operator pulls the valve, it sends a signal to the timer, the timer waits for 20 seconds, and then sends a signal to the Norgren PRA series pneumatic cylinders – that we are supplying with it – that will then retract and let you open the door. It's actually very simple but quite effective.”

The attraction of Norgren's solutions is the sheer build quality. “The quality of them is absolutely spot on, especially in applications such as this one. In quite a hazardous, aggressive environment you need something that's going to do the job properly and they're the best for that. When the products come through the door you can see how well they're made. They're an extremely high quality product.

After I suggested the Norgren M/50901 pneumatic timer and Norgren PRA series pneumatic cylinders, the adhesives manufacturer was really pleased and their feedback was that this was exactly the type of solution they had been searching for.”

For more information visit www.norgren.com.