Most common water treatment valves and their characteristics

A valve is a control device in a fluid pipeline. Its primary function is to connect or disconnect the flow of the medium in the pipeline. It is also a means of changing the direction of the flow of the medium, and adjusting the pressure of the flow of the medium. And placing different valves, large and small, in the system. An important guarantee for the normal operation of the pipe and water treatment equipment or any applications in which fluids are transferred. The most common water treatment valves are the gate valve, ball valve and butterfly valve. There are several other common types of water treatment valves, the most common of which are in water treatment applications or in fluid transfer applications in general. Our team of Carewater experts can help with more information.

Gate valve is one of the most common water treatment valves

A type of valve that is widely used for all kinds of applications and the gate valve is named so because its structure is a gate that descends and ascends in a linear motion. It is a valve that controls the opening and closing of the fluid path.

Advantages of gate valves:

• It is characterized by complete opening and closing.
• Available in different sizes, and there are large sizes.
• Easy to maintain.
• It is easy to disassemble and install.
• It can work in two directions.
• Its price is reasonable and cheap compared to other types.

Disadvantages of gate valves:

• It requires muscle strength to open or close it in manual cases.
• Vibration occurs when it is partially open.

Ball valve

The ball valve or ball valve, and it is called by this name because it contains a spherical cavity inside it, it is a valve with a circular movement, and the spherical cavity is in the direction of the flow when opening, and in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the flow when closing, and the ball valve is known as one of the most famous valves in terms of operating speed.

The ball valve works by a handle that controls the flow or stopping of the fluid, so when the valve handle is turned, the ball rotates to the point that makes the ball opening match the inlet and outlet of the valve, and when closing, this ball is rotated a quarter turn until the ball is in the position where the opening is perpendicular to the direction of the flow.

Characteristics of the ball valve

• Ball valves can be used for throttling only if they are large in size, but if they are small, they are used for complete opening and closing.
• It is used for low pressures.
• The closing member is a sphere so that the base pressure is uniform circumferentially.
• Most ball valves are equipped with soft seats so that they provide excellent leak-proofing.
• Commonly used with open/close operations.
• It is not recommended to keep it partially open.
• Available with reduced port and full port.
• The segmental-type ball valve can be used with throttling operations.
• The spherical isolation elements may be soft seat or metal seat depending on the fluid compatibility, maximum service pressure and temperature and the required closure class.
• Ball valves are operated manually either by a lever in small sizes or by a hand wheel through reduction gears to reduce the torque required.
• The ball valve body has many shapes “Top entry – side entry – one piece – two pieces, three pieces … etc”.
• The top inlet of the ball valve is better because it can be repaired by removing it from the top while it is on the pipeline, while the side inlet can only be repaired by removing it and removing it from the pipeline.
• Large sizes of ball valves are used for high-pressure operations, so their prices are very expensive.

Butterfly Valve

It is the third most common type of water valve. The Butterfly Valve is one of the circular motion valves, and it is from the family of quarter-turn valves (at an angle of 90˚), used to regulate the flow of fluids only, easy to use because its rotation when it is at an angle of 90˚ will change the valve position from the fully closed state to the fully open state, as for the butterfly valves that are large in size, they are operated by circular handles, and the diameter of the disc is the diameter of the pipe.

Butterfly valves are not linear valves, meaning that the flow through the valve does not change linearly with the opening angle. The resistance of these valves is relatively small when fully open, while they become more sensitive to flow control when the opening angle becomes between 15o and 70o. These valves are naturally accompanied by diagrams and charts, and there are also approximate mathematical relationships to show these properties.

Advantages of the butterfly valve

• Its price is relatively inexpensive.
• The closing element is a rotating disc.
• It is commonly used with on/off operations.
• It can be used in throttling cases.
• It is used to secure various operations against fires.
• It is used in low-pressure applications.
• Most butterfly valves are equipped with soft seats so that they have an excellent seal.