Parker-Skinner And Honeywell: The Big Bruisers In Valve Technology
The Parker corporation’s fluid control division is known as a global leader in the department of solenoid valves, with its Skinner Valves currently being of particularly high repute in terms of their reliability and efficiency. Solenoid valves utilize electromagnetism to control mechanical motion, as well as the flow and pressure of liquids, gases and compressed air.
With manufactories spread across four continents, in prominent industrial nations such as the U.S.A, Switzerland, South Korea, Italy and Brazil, each of them staffed to the brim with top-level design engineers and technicians to aid in the speedy prototyping and manufacture of custom valve designs, Parker and Skinner Valves are unquestionably the choice of professional, big business companies everywhere.
Skinner Valves lines include 4-, 3- and 2-Way solenoid valves, products that fulfil needs in a huge number of industries. Amongst the expansive Skinner Valves range you’ll find devices tailored for machine tooling, air-conditioning, refrigeration, dispensing and heavy-duty transportation, construction, and even medical instrumentation.
Among the Parker Skinner brand’s chief competitors is Honeywell, a brand that, but for Asco, would be to solenoids as Hoover once was to vacuum cleaners. The company began making solenoids as far back as 1895 due to the crucial role they played in the company’s most internationally famed product, a product that, much-refined, remains in production till this day: The thermostat.
The basis for this ubiquitous device was ironed out ten years early, when a man named Albert Butz patented his design for a furnace regulator. Essentially, the device was constructed so that when ambient temperatures dropped below a certain set temperature, the thermostat would close a circuit, allowing current to reach a solenoid which, when energized, would draw in an armature that had acted as the stop for a motor gear.
The removal of this stop would allow the crank that was attached to the central motor shaft to turn half a revolution, winding round it a chain that in turn opened the furnace’s air damper, allowing air to enter the furnace. Once the ambient temperature rose to a certain level, the thermostat would signal the central motor shaft to rotate another half revolution, closing the damper and thus damping the fire again. The ingenious arrangement made the temperature correction of the device automatic, a principle that would serve as the basis for many vastly more complicated but nonetheless conceptually similar closed-loop systems that the company would pioneer and perfect in the ensuing years.
Far from resting on its laurels, Honeywell has remained at the forefront of innovation and design in its staple fields, while branching into all manner of related industries. One example is the company’s Smartfit central heating and hot water control systems, the success of which has led to the company pioneering ever-simpler, more easily installed and maintained snap-on actuator units, made so as to fit all manner of valve types. The present version of this device has eliminated the need for the 30-wire assembly that previous incarnations required – it now connects to the Smartfit base unit by the use of a single, plug-in connection. The simplicity of its design is a tribute to Honeywell’s focus on elegance and performance as a manufacturer, an attribute that, despite challenging competition from the Parker Skinner brand, will no doubt ensure its strength and market-dominance for many years to come.
