regulator

[jonpo]

hey guys, ive been searching for what feels like endlessly for an 'inline' regulator that i would be able to thread on to my 'air tank' (steel pipe), with the firing chamber, regulator, and tank being in line with eachother. i have come accross a ebay add- http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DMIC-NV2M-02 ... 540f374947
entailing a very small profile "needle valve flow regulator" would this be of any use being a primary regulator? or is it too good to be true. also, i have found this http://www.lifcohydraulics-usa.com/pdf/nv2m.pdf which gives details of the product, yet i still cant work out if it would be useful. anyway, if this wont work, can you guys suggest any regulators that will give me the 'inline' functionality that i am looking for?
cheers, jono

[vng21092]

Well there are two types of regulators... flow regulators and pressure regulators. Now what you found is a flow regulator, which affects the... you guessed it, flow. It controls how slow / fast a chamber fills. Should you wish to adjust your psi level from high --> low, then you would need a pressure regulator. Now since were in a pneumatics forum, I'm going to assume what you're really looking for is a PRESSURE regulator, because why would you want to restrict flow . As for where to buy... look around on Amazon?

[mako]

As vng21092 has pointed out, you need a pressure regulator, not a flow regulator.

Question: why would you want a pressure regulator on an air tank? Odds are you won't be getting air to high enough pressures to need a regulator... unless you're really dropping the pressure way down, like 10's of PSI.

One of the other guys here, should be able to refer you to a specific regulator, but be warned, these things can get pretty pricey.

[DYI]

As pointed out by other posters, needle valves are flow regulators, probably not what you're looking for.

Most general purpose gas pressure regulators actually are inline, which is why your searches for "inline" regulators are turning up many results . If you're in the USA, Mcmaster-Carr is always an option: you can find their pressure regulators here. I bought a low pressure (0-250psi outlet pressure) air reg from them once which served me well.

Regardless of where you live, I definitely recommend a look at Amron's extensive selection. It's almost certain that they'll have what you're looking for.

E&S Technologies also carries quite a few, although they tend to be more oriented toward extreme high-purity applications, and are priced as such. Cole-Parmer also has a few, which are just as overpriced as nearly everything they sell.

Those are the places I'd look first, because I buy regularly from all those suppliers. No doubt there are several other places with good selections. You'll typically pay more for higher outlet pressure ranges (over 500psi gets expensive). If you're using a tank (inlet) pressure above 4500psi it'll also be a bit more expensive.

[matti]

There are inline regulators for sale, but most of them are preset, so cant be adjusted.. maybe with some modifications you coul even make it adjustable.

http://www.bearingshopuk.co.uk/fluid-po ... egulators/

[Ianbuckwell]

Cant remember their name but they make a regulator called Pebble, don't know if they do anything that fits your needs. I used a paintball reg. And was concerned about flow so simple put a small resevoir after reg. To store the air at the new pressure so I knew the gun would never be starved of air as it had this to rely on. I don't know it may have been fine without it.

[jonpo]

thanks all so much for the feed back, seeing as im in australia and im not incredibly keen to spend $500-1000 on a reg, i think im going to go for a parker and verflo regulator, there are loads on ebay and many are rated to 3000psi! but yes i am looking for a pressure regulator, as i am going to be using steel pipe as a reservoir hopefully up to 1000psi upon access to a pcp pump, i wanted the air to be regulated to a firing chamber actuated by a hammer valve. thoughts on how effective this set up will be?

[matti]

thanks all so much for the feed back, seeing as im in australia and im not incredibly keen to spend $500-1000 on a reg, i think im going to go for a parker and verflo regulator, there are loads on ebay and many are rated to 3000psi! but yes i am looking for a pressure regulator, as i am going to be using steel pipe as a reservoir hopefully up to 1000psi upon access to a pcp pump, i wanted the air to be regulated to a firing chamber actuated by a hammer valve. thoughts on how effective this set up will be?

Why not use a HPA paintball ragulator ? They cost something like 50-150usd and are very small and also inline.. there are adjustable ones for sale and palmers pursuit sells those to all kind of pressures. I have one lowpressure model that regulates 3000psi to 0-200psi.

[Gippeto]

If you're building a pcp...why do you need a regulator? The valve should self regulate...opening more and with increasing dwell as the pressure drops...tuned properly, the velocity will rise, plateau and then fall back to where it started...700-725-700. Typically referred to as a bell curve.

If you simply must have a regulator, get a hpa paintball tank...comes with a regulator, and is a better pressure vessel than some unknown steel pipe.

[matti]

If you're building a pcp...why do you need a regulator? The valve should self regulate...opening more and with increasing dwell as the pressure drops...tuned properly, the velocity will rise, plateau and then fall back to where it started...700-725-700. Typically referred to as a bell curve.

If you simply must have a regulator, get a hpa paintball tank...comes with a regulator, and is a better pressure vessel than some unknown steel pipe.

Thats true.. I second this, if your making pcp you can do it without regulator if using suitable hammervalve.

It would have helped if you would have told us in the beginning what you are making, size, pressure etc..