Whatever your field of activity and your working conditions, it is always necessary to think about the safety of men and the protection of machines before installing one or more pneumatic tools.
Although the use of air motors presents less risks than electric motors, especially concerning the risks of heating and explosion in an Atex environment, a few precautions should be taken.
The SAT BOX (Safety Air Treatment Box) is a safety device for the protection of machines and people to be installed upstream of your pneumatic tools, such as pneumatic motors, linear pneumatic actuators , multiturn pneumatic pistons and any pneumatic manual portable tools, such as modec portable valve actuators.
The use of a pneumatic motor or actuator requires clean, dry, lubricated air at a specific pressure.
The inlet pressure in the pneumatic tool determines the maximum torque of the motor. It is therefore important to control it in order to control the force applied by the machine used by the operator. Although we can equip our portable valve actuators with an optional torque limiter, an effective way to limit torque is to establish the air pressure at the machine inlet.
The air is filtered to remove impurities that could damage the motor. The dirt collection tank is equipped with an automatic drain.
In order to preserve the service life and maintain maximum motor performance, our Safety Box lubricates the pneumatic tool. We have equipped our safety box with a sniffer that allows you to fill up with oil at the touch of a button, once the supply hose is immersed in the oil. Each motor requires a specific minimum amount of oil. This quantity of oil can be adjusted by means of a thumbwheel on the oil tank which counts the number of drops per minute added to the air system. (check out our video for more details)
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The SAT Box integrates a high-capacity filtration, regulation and lubrication unit necessary for air treatment and allowing precise adjustment of the air pressure. Each pneumatic tool requires a sufficient air supply flow to operate at full power. The filtration system, if improperly dimensioned, can represent a significant pressure drop. If you do not provide the necessary amount of air supply to the tool, you will not get optimum tool performance. We have built a range of correctly dimensioned safety boxes for each of our motor or portable valve actuator powers in order to avoid airflow restrictions.
Our Sat Box has an emergency stop button with restart required afterwards. The button can be locked with a key to prevent restart after shutdown. As an option, we also offer a remote emergency stop button that can be installed within easy reach of the operator for maximum responsiveness in case of emergency.
Our Sat Box has an automatic bleeding of the compressed air downstream during shutdown: there is no more residual energy, the system has become neutral. By using a conventional shut-off valve, the amount of pressurized air present in the network is sufficient to keep the tool or machine running and thus injure the operator. By completely draining the line, the machine is thus stopped immediately.
Our Sat Box can detect possible pressure drops in the supply network and switches itself off automatically when the pressure is below 2 bars to eliminate the risk of an untimely restart when the pressure returns.
Indeed, if the machine stops due to lack of air, it can harm the operator. In the event of an automatic restart when the compressed air supply network is restarted, the operator may have his hands or part of his body in the working area and thus be injured by the machine. This is not possible with the Safety Box. The SAT BOX switches off the tool / machine when the air supply is low or inexistent. Two operations are necessary on the part of the operator to restart the machine. These operations cannot take place accidentally. The emergency stop button must be unlocked and the ON button must be pressed to reload the machine with compressed air.
The SAT BOX allows two modes of operation: continuous (auto start button) or via a remote control (handle or pedal) to keep control of your pneumatic tools while maintaining mobility and ergonomics.
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All the functions are provided by the supply pressure without any other energy source. We can also provide you with an Atex certification for the safety box.
As an option, the safety box offers a dead man's handle that allows to run the motor or actuator and allows immediate stop when the handle is released.
This handle can be replaced by a pedal allowing the remote on/off function, while leaving the operator's hands free.
We can also offer a reversing function that will allow the direction of rotation of the pneumatic tool to be reversed remotely from the safety box.
We have equipped our safety box with an ergonomic interface for more comfort and safety. The protective metal structure is made of epoxy coated metal to withstand intensive use. As well as a carrying handle and protective feet.
The SAT BOX can be compared to a "pneumatic circuit breaker" which significantly improves the safety of machines and people in the event of an emergency stop or accidental start. It can also be ATEX certified upon request. Modec meets the specifications of the ATEX directive d2014/34/EU, EN ISO 80079-36, EN ISO 80079-37 and was certified on October 21, 2019 by LCIE in compliance with the latest Atex standards in force since March 2019.
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