Question for the industrial control guys - Pneumatic Valves

Question:
I've got a few Festo pneumatic valve blocks removed from an industrial machine. I've been considering pneumatic pumps for the brew rig, and was wondering how these are controlled? They appear to have an Allen-Bradley M12 connector.

My theory is that I can move beer in the process with compressed air at significantly less expense than 2 or 3 March pumps - If I can control these solenoid valve blocks.

Thoughts?

Sweet,
I have several Festo Cylinders and a few 100VAC coil solenoids to operate the sylinders. I found a text on another site called Pneumatics 101, they are really doing a nice job introducing the concept and implementation of the solenoids and cylinders for me. If you need a copy of that text PM me and I will send you a copy. Otherwise I am pretty literate in pneudraulics so ask away if your in need of a specific question answered.
Wheelchair Bob

Edit
Forget it, I'm an idiot

Sweet,
Check your inbox for a PM.
Bob

Emailed

Sounds like a nifty idea......however, I see a few possible problems
1. sanitation, those valve blocks were not designed to account for bacterial growth, this means cracks and crevises for critters to hide in as well as whatever seals used in the blocks may be permiable and give bacteria a place to live.
2. the past use of those blocks, most pneumatic valves require the compressed air to carry a small amount of oil mixed with it to lubricate solonoids, seals, tools ect, that oil will be embedded in the seals and be tough to clean out. so if you were to run beer in them you would probably pick up off flavors
3 temp rating on the valve system, unless you are planning to use this for chiled wort and water only, I doubt those valves are rated for running high
temp wort and water through them, again hot wort would definatly pick up any air lubricaion oil reside left behind. furthermore should you manage to clean all the oil out of the valve body "hard since its a very thin film" the valves would break down eventually from lack of oil.
4. hose diameter, unless those are big valves your hose id would be pretty small and you wouldn't get very fast flow AND most compressed pneumatic systems leak a little "especially at the valves"
final thoughts " i really like the idea of pneumatically moving beer around, you would need properly rated valves to do it. should your valves fit the criteria i named above give it a try I'd like to know how it works
out.
5. my advice, sell those valves on ebay or wherever and use the cash for a march pump

feyr47 said:

Sounds like a nifty idea......however, I see a few possible problems
1. sanitation, those valve blocks were not designed to account for bacterial growth

Click to expand...

I'm speaking of using the pneumatic valve block to trigger air powered BIB pumps - These would only be for air, not beer.

feyr47 said:

2. the past use of those blocks, most pneumatic valves require the compressed air to carry a small amount of oil mixed with it to lubricate solonoids, seals, tools ect

Click to expand...

See #1

feyr47 said:

3 temp rating on the valve system, unless you are planning to use this for chiled wort and water only, I doubt those valves are rated for running high
temp wort and water through them

Click to expand...

See #1 - However, the temp rating of the pumps I've seen is only 140 degrees

feyr47 said:

4. hose diameter, unless those are big valves your hose id would be pretty small and you wouldn't get very fast flow AND most compressed pneumatic systems leak a little "especially at the valves"

Click to expand...

See #1

I've been looking at pumps from Bag in a Box systems. These are usually powered by Co2 for soda, but I was thinking of using them for brewing. They are only rated for 140 degrees, but I wonder how much fudge factor is in there. Everything prior to boiling is just slightly over that rating. The Co2 pumps can be had for $10 each, and typically move somewhere on the order of 4 ounces per second.

It was just a thought.