Continental Automatic Changeover Devices designed for supply of a continuous gas flow

(prHWY.com) December 10, 2012 - London, United Kingdom -- The specially designed regulator that automatically closes the supply from one cylinder or bank of cylinders and opens another in order to ensure continuity of the gas supply, thus preventing any loss of supply when the cylinders have run out of gas. These can be used in conjunction with a second stage regulator to give a high pressure outlet supply or, as is more typically the case, they are used to reduce the pressure down to 37mbar in a single stage. It will often be found that these controls have an OPSO incorporated within the regulator.

The operation of the automatic change over is as follows:-

1.When the manually operated lever control handle is turned to the ON position, the angular base of the actuator applies pressure to the face of the valve is faces. This overcomes the closure spring pressure and opens the valve. The high pressure then enters the valve and operates as previously described in the general operation of regulators.

2.When the supply pressure reduces to approximately 6psi, the actuator spring pushes down further against the loss of pressure and eventually the valve from the second supply line is made to operate. At this time a red indicator is displayed on the control handle informing the user that the cylinder has become exhausted. This indicator was previously clear.

3.At this stage the manually operated lever control handle can be turned to face the second gas supply. This causes the indicator to turn back to clear but, more importantly, it allows the first exhausted supply valve to close. With the gas still flowing, the empty cylinder can now be exchanged for new.

If the cylinder capacity was undersized the changeover would occur prematurely with the result that the user would be unable to obtain the fully quantity of gas from the cylinders. The location of an automatic changeover valve must be above the level of the cylinder outlet valve.

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