The options for ball valves seem endless. In order to choose the right ball valve, you have to decide which seat material? What kind of terminal connection? Full, Reduced or Standard Port? 2-way or multi-port type? the packaging?   In this article, we will discuss when you should use a three-piece ball valve.   What is a 3-piece ball valve?   Ball valves fall in one-piece, two-piece or three-piece. One-piece ball valves are relatively cheap and usually require no maintenance. A two-piece ball valve consists of two separate parts that are connected by a threaded or bolted and flanged assembly.   According to this law, you may have guessed that a three-piece ball valve consists of three pieces. Yes, there are two end caps and a valve body. The end caps are either welded, threaded or flanged to the piping on either side of the valve.   Why use a three-piece ball valve?   For projects with a large number of valve requirements, three-piece ball valves are more convenient than one-piece or two-piece ones. When seats and seals need to be replaced periodically, three-piece valves can be easily disassembled, repaired and reassembled without major cuts to the piping.   Three-piece ball valves also allow replacement of elastomers to accommodate different process conditions, temperatures, pressures and flow rates.   Do you need to weld the valve in the field? Another benefit of a 3 piece ball valve is the fact that it can remove the valve body and trims while welding. Because that, the body and trims can be kept intact.   What is the biggest difference between a 2 and 3 piece ball valve?   The two-piece ball valve was also designed in the view of easy maintenance. The major difference between the two is that the valve body on a three-piece valve can be removed without disturbing the two end caps. Two-piece ball valves usually do not allow this, let alone one-piece ball valves.   There are, of course, price differences. As mentioned earlier, one-piece valves are usually disposable. Three-piece valves tend to cost more initially, but in the long run, maintenance costs and the ability to replace the seat and seals should be kept in mind rather than replacing the valve.

Ball valves and butterfly valves are the two most common types of rotary valves. It only need a quarter-turn to turn on or turn off both valves. However, there are certain functions where a ball valve is better than a butterfly valve.   First of all, ball valve provides a perfect seal. When the valve is completely closed, there will be no leakage. More importantly, the ball valve can rotate regardless of the pressure from the supply line. What’s more, as long as it is fully open, it will not reduce the pressure of the fluid in the pipeline.   Ball valves are primarily used to control high-pressure liquid and gas lines. This is because ball valves do not cause any pressure drop or impede fluid movement when fully open. What is worthy to be noted that they are primarily used in applications where the inside diameter of the pipe is less than or equal to 6 inches.   Ball valves have no trouble in high-pressure applications. In addition, when ball valves are used in high-pressure applications, a pressure balancing scheme is not required. This is not possible with butterfly valves.   Ball valves have a simple structure. They are also smaller and lighter compared to many other types of valves. Ball valves have a very flexible soft seal, which makes it easy to operate. And ball valves have the lowest fluid resistance compared to all other types of valves.   You can use the valve for many years without any damage due to leakage. In other words, this means that the valve is reliable and cost effective in the long term. This valve can be designed to withstand extremely high pressures. In fact, you will recognize that high-pressure systems often have ball valves fitted internally.   There can be multiple ends in a ball valve. It allows many combinations of ports. If you are thinking of purchasing a ball valve, you can consider these advantages before your purchase.

A knife gate valve serves as a ‘ninja’ that wields a blade to cut off blockages of heavy liquids in the pipelines. With the sharp blade, knife gate valves usually present in a situation where there is most corrosive, aggressive and abrasive The pulp and paper industry is the one the knife gate valves were originally designed for. In the past, the viscous pulp will be caught between the wedge and seat of an ordinary gate valve, thus the flow stream can not be shut off. The knife gate valve there, with a sharp cutting edge, is able solve the problem and cut off the pulp and seal it. How does a Knife Gate Valve Work Out of this ingenious feature, knife gate valves have emerged to be more than popular when it comes to places that transport viscous fluids, slurry and other things alike. Today, knife gate valves are used in many processing plants and are larger in size, which makes it easier to handle dense fluids such as light oil, heavy oil, varnish, mud, waste water, and pulp. It should be noted that these valves have low pressure limits, and after the blade cuts the material it handles, the blade will return to the elastomer seal. Thick liquid can smoothly slide over these soft seals, however, when solid substances or powders pass through the knife gate, these rough substances will eventually accumulate in the soft seal at the end of the knife gate. When this happens, the sealing performance of these valves will wane. If this happens, the seal needs to be replaced. When not to Use Knife Gate Valves Knife gate valves can not be used to regulate the flow stream, because vibration occurs when the fluid is forced to flow through a partially closed gate valve and erodes the wedge and seat. Therefore, the knife gate valve can be used only when it is completely closed or opened.

Different valves work for different conditions. It is more than wrong If you think that valve is just a simple switch to cut off the flow just like a faucet (though faucet is actually a valve in some terms). But let explore further about how the valve works and how to select the right valve for the specific purpose! The valve used to cut off the flow The straight-through valve, with a relatively small flow resistance, is usually used to cut off the flow. On the contact, downward-closing valves like globe valve and plunger valve, which have a tortuous path, have higher flow resistance than other valves. Because of that, this kind of valve is used to control flow where high flow resistance is allowed. The valve used for flow control Usually we choose the valve that is easy to adjust the flow as the flow control. The downward-closing valve mentioned above works in this condition because its seat size is proportional to the stroke of the wedge. Rotary valve (plug valve, butterfly valve, ball valve), pinch valve and diaphragm valve can also be used to control the flow. But they are only applied within a limited valve diameter range. The gate valve uses a disc-shaped gate to make a transverse movement to the circular valve seat. It can control the flow rate only when it is about to close, so it cannot be used for flow control. Valve used to reverse and divert the flow In accordance with the need of reversing and diverting, this kind of valve has three or more channels. Plug valves and ball valves are more suitable for this. However, in some cases, other types of valves can also be used for reversing and diverting as long as two or more valves are properly connected to each other. Valve used for medium with particles Speak of transferring medium with floating particles in it, the best choice is to choose the valve whose disc slides along the sealing surface. The disc will wipe this area while it moves. If the disc moves vertically along the seat ring, particles may be stuck at the sealing part. Ball valve and plug valve will clean its sealing surface when they are working, hence, they can be put in particle-mixed medium transportation. At present, no matter in the pipeline system of petroleum, chemical industry, or in other industries, the application, operation frequency and service of the valve are ever-changing. To control or eliminate even the smallest leakage, the most important and critical equipment is the valve. The ultimate control of the pipeline is the valve, which plays a unique and reliable role in various fields.

As we all know, the valve works for medium at temperature -40 ℃ ~ -196 ℃ is called ‘cryogenic valve’. Cryogenic valves, including cryogenic emergency shut valve, cryogenic ball valve, cryogenic gate valve, LNG cryogenic valve, NG cryogenic valve, are usually found in chemical plants such as ‘300,000 tons of ethylene’ project and production of liquefied natural gas. Ethylene, liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum, and other liquid media the cryogenic valve transfers are flammable and explosive. What is more, they are going to gasify and expand hundreds of times when the temperature rises. This kind of valve is always equipped with an extended bonnet or namely extended stem. That’s because: 1. The extended bonnet can prevent the stuffing box, which plays an important role in the cryogenic valve and other valves, from the damage of low temperature. As the temperature goes down, the packing will gradually become less elastic and lost its ability to prevent leakage. Then, medium freeze in the space between the packing and the stem, hampering the movement of the stem and scratching the packing as the stem moves. In the end, what follows is severe leakage. Therefore，a extended stem is used to ensure that the packing is warm enough, at least above 8 ℃. 2. The extended structure of bonnet makes it convenient to wrap special materials around the valve, preventing the loss of cold energy. 3. The pipes and valves are often installed in the so-called 'cold box', but its ‘long neck’ can go through the wall of the 'cold box'. Based on that, The extended stem makes it convenient to dismantle or replace the main parts of the valve quickly through the bonnet. Hence，the valve body and the pipeline are welded together to reduce the leakage of the cold box as much as possible and ensure the sealing performance of the valve.

The increasing usage of solenoid valve mean a rising future of it. Today, we will discuss why it become more and more popular.   Firstly, the introduction of environmental protection and sustainable development policy applied to industry give rise to the energy-saving concept, which is in line with the developing standards of solenoid valves-saving resources like water, energy and materials.   Second, the solenoid valves are designed to consume less energy and reduce energy loss due to flow resistance. This is the development direction of valve industry. Thus, the electric equipment is widely used in energy-saving industry. You can use consume less energy by upgrading its structure and choosing the low-power & low-noise device. On the premise of the two reasons mentioned above, we should invest more energy and money on the research, innovation and development of solenoid valves and make it play a great role in high-tech industry.