Selecting The Right Dispensing Equipment for your Applications

Fluid Dispensing Equipment

Fluid dispensing equipment has come a long way. In the early days, the only dispensing equipment option was to use a plunger to manually push fluid out from a syringe. With the rapid advancement of dispensing equipment, today there are various techniques available and within each technique there are quite a few types of dispensing equipment options. They range from simple manual dispensing equipment to dispensing equipment with positive displacement pumps. Faced with too many choices to choose from, selecting the right dispensing equipment can be a daunting task if you are not familiar with the technologies.   The following information will assist you selecting the right dispensing equipment for your applications.

Manual Syringe System
The rudimentary dispensing equipment is the manual dispense process.  A typical manual system includes a plunger with piston, a syringe filled with fluid and dispense tip.  The operator simply pushes the plunger down until enough fluid is dispensed on the work piece. Repeatability rate is entirely dependent on how consistent the operator can repeat the process. This dispensing equipement method is suitable for low volume applications where product yields below 80% are acceptable.

Figure 1.  A precision dispenser that features a digital timer to dispense small dot of fluid accurately from a syringe.

Time/Pressure Syringe System (TPD-Syringe)
The basic dispensing equipment system, (figure 1.0), starts with a dispenser, syringe and syringe adapter.  The syringe, filled with fluid to be dispensed, is connected to the time/pressure dispenser via the syringe adapter. The operator can activate the dispensing equipment cycle by simply pressing the foot switch or finger switch.  During operation, the dispensing equipment delivers a measured amount of air pressure for a pre-set dispense time to a syringe.  The controlled shot of air forces the fluid out of the syringe, through the dispensing needle and onto the work surface.

Time/Pressure Valve System (TPD-Valve)
The disadvantage of the syringe fed dispensing equipment is it depends on too many variables to maintain good repeatability rate for the entire dispensing process.  To address this problem, OK International offers various series of TPD valve systems.  A typical TPD valve system includes a pneumatic valve, a controller and a pressure reservoir, show in figure 2.

Selecting the right dispensing equipment is one of the most important part of the manufacturing process.  Manufacturing engineers are urged to contact dispensing equipment supplier such as Techcon Systems for complete detailed analysis of the application.

For more information get the 5-page white paper here or contact Techcon.