Solenoid valve

What is a solenoid?

A solenoid is built up from several coils. A coil, in turn, is built up from wound up conducting wire. Several coils can be wound in the same direction to create a cylindrical structure which is called a solenoid.

A solenoid needs three elements to function properly:

• Coiled wire
• Electricity
• A movable core

How does a solenoid valve work?

When the electric current flows through a conducting wire an electromagnetic field forms around the movable core, called an armature. When forced to move by the electromagnetic field, the motion of the armature opens and closes valves or switches and turns electrical energy into mechanical motion and force.

Valves have a natural position, let’s call it the resting position. That position can be naturally open or naturally closed. If the position is naturally closed no current runs through the wires and the movable core rests against the base of the valve. By resting against the base it closes the valve and in this way no liquid or gas behind it can get through. When there is electricity running through the coil the magnetic field gets created and the core lifts up. Enabling the freely passing of the liquid or gas. A valve with a naturally open position works with the same fundamental principle, but it’s designed to work in reverse.

There are many different kinds of solenoid valves, but the main variants are either direct acting or pilot operated.

• Direct acting solenoid valves
• Pilot operated solenoid valves

How strong is a solenoid?

A better question to ask is how strong a solenoid has to be. The strength needed differs between the wide variety of applications in which solenoids are used. When applied in a large vessel, where it controls the flow of a large amount of liquids, the strength needed is far greater than when used in a smaller application. The power of a solenoid comes from the amount of coils in the wire and the current sent through it. If you want to know how strong a solenoid has to be in your application, there is a mathematical equation you can use. We don’t want to dive in too deep here, however using Ampere’s law you can determine how strong the electromagnetic field is, or has to be. The magnetic field equation helps you to determine how many coils and how much current you need to sufficiently power a solenoid.

What can solenoid valves be used for?

As mentioned above solenoid valves can be used in a wide variety of applications. It speaks for itself that a large, powerful solenoid with many coils is excessive when used for something like letting your doorbell ring. After all, different applications call for different sizes of solenoids. For example a solenoid valve on an oil rig would need to be much more powerful, due to the large amount of liquid flowing through. Although there are many different solenoid valves, they can be divided into three main categories:

KET Marine provides you with reliable, high quality spare parts and service solutions for oil separators

An oil separator can’t function without solenoid valves, so they are a substantial part of our focus. At KET Marine we help our clients with everything in the field of separators. We deliver high quality spare parts and offer service solutions for our clients. We are always eager to help, so if you want to know more about our field of work do not hesitate to get in touch!