On a hydrogen dispenser the compressor lifts gas into a cascade of cylinders, and the valve on the ramp sees not 16 bar of shop air but 350–450 bar.

On a hydrogen dispenser the compressor lifts gas into a cascade of cylinders, and the valve on the ramp sees not 16 bar of shop air but 350–450 bar. A ordinary brass-body solenoid valve is not used here: the thread yields, the seat weeps, and the coil runs hot on the tight open–close cycle of a fill.

The valve on this ramp is a GSR series 2/529 high-pressure valve. It is a 2/2-way pilot-operated piston valve in stainless steel 1.4571, with PTFE/PEEK seals, threads from G1/4 to G2, and a working range of 1–450 bar. It needs a differential between inlet and outlet, so it sits downstream of the compressor, not on an empty line. The normally closed version shuts the cylinder as soon as the coil is de-energised. On one dispenser these valves are built as a 3-fold or 6-fold block — a separate body for each cascade stage is unnecessary. The service life the manufacturer states for filling systems is more than 100,000 cycles.

The same version covers CNG stations and high-pressure hydraulic power units, provided the medium is clean: hydrogen, natural gas, water, hydraulic oil. This series does not replace a valve for aggressive chemistry — the high-pressure catalogue rates the medium as clean and neutral.

Supply of the GSR series 2/529 valve and ramp blocks is handled by CSC-Automation LLC: 4-B Yevhena Sverstiuka St., Kyiv, phone +380 44 494 33 44, kck@kck.ua, https://kck.ua.