Tankers & commercial vehicles

The history of commercial vehicles is essentially as old as the invention of the wheel. Naturally, modern commercial vehicles can in no way be compared with their primitive predecessors, the carriage and cart, but it is clear that trade and industry have always been reliant on the transport of goods and products. Valves used in the transport sector act as important connectors for filling and emptying tankers and commercial vehicles.

Silo vehicles and tankers are an intrinsic part of our road traffic these days. They transport a wide variety of goods that enable us to easily cope with daily life – from agricultural produce (e.g. cereals, milk, animal feed, etc.) and (petro) chemical products (e.g. oil, petrol, kerosene, gases, additives, chemicals, etc.) through to a diverse range of food and beverages. All of these goods are transported to their intended destination worldwide with the aid of silo trucks and tankers.

Valves are fitted in these commercial vehicles so that the goods can be loaded and unloaded safely and reliably. These types of valve usually feature a special tanker flange connection. For the transport of food and beverages, there are also food-grade valve configurations that are specially designed for use in this sector.

Another important area is the construction of commercial vehicles – from standard trucks, small transporters and vehicles used for cleaning and maintaining roads and supply infrastructure (such as road sweepers and sewer cleaning vehicles) through to specially made vehicles designed to provide transport solutions for less common tasks. The tasks handled by the valves installed in this sector are just as diverse as the relevant fields of application.

Pinch valves have served as very reliable, automated shut-off valves in silo tankers for more than 20 years. The installed pinch valves control the emptying of a diverse range of goods via the discharge pipe.
The type of media that is being transported or controlled is not generally an issue. Hazardous substances, such as chemicals, can be handled just as easily as harmless goods – whether they are liquid food products, cereals, animal feed, pellets or other bulk goods. Pinch valves can also be utilised during the filling or emptying process or for taking samples for control purposes.

Pinch valves from AKO Armaturen can be flexibly configured thanks to their modular design and can thus be adapted to the requirements of the media being transported. Food-grade configurations (incl. with EHEDG certification) are also available for transporting products from the animal feed, food & beverage sectors, as are abrasion and corrosion-resistant configurations for controlling particularly abrasive or corrosive goods.

Pinch valves from AKO are also used in the construction of specially made vehicles. For example, they are found in mobile presses for wine production, mobile concrete pumps or in special vehicles where suction pipes need to be controlled.