The Precision Damper Assembly (AF-DPR-A) was designed from the onset to be a continuous control valve to take maximum advantage of the fast, high resolution, electronic actuator.

The current technology for making air control butterfly damper assemblies is to make them from thin gauge sheet metal with pressed-in, sintered metal bearings. The damper blade is also made of thin sheet metal located off-center from the shaft. This type of assembly works best either fully open or closed, not in continuous usage. Also, the thin sheet metal casing can easily be warped during handling and installation, adding to its operational problems. The fit of the damper blade to the inside of the damper is usually so bad that some type of rubber seal must be used to accomplish minimum turn-down. Some of the more serious problems this type of assembly has are high wear rates on the bearing; high bearing friction or sticking between the damper and the damper wall, resulting in poor control; loss of turn-down; and noise generation. Opposed blade damper assemblies usually make the worst control valves due to the loss of motion in the drive linkage.