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A ball valve is a form of quarter-turn valve which uses a hollow, perforated and pivoting ball to control
flow through it. It is open when the ball's hole is in line with the flow and closed when it is pivoted 90- degrees by the valve handle.[1] The handle lies flat in alignment with the flow when open, and is perpendicular to it when closed, making for easy visual confirmation of the valve's status.[2]
Ball valves are durable, performing well after many cycles, and reliable, closing securely even after long periods of disuse. These qualities make them an excellent choice for shutoff and control applications, where they are often preferred to gates and globe valves, but they lack their fine control in throttling applications.
The ball valve's ease of operation, repair, and versatility lend it to extensive industrial use, supporting pressures up to 1000 bar and temperatures up to 752 °F (400 °C), depending on design and materials used. Sizes typically range from 0.2 to 48 inches (0.5 cm to 121 cm). Valve bodies are made of metal, plastic, or metal with a ceramic; floating balls are often chrome plated for durability. One disadvantage of a ball valve is that they trap water in the center cavity while in the closed position. In the event of a freeze, the sides can crack due to expansion of ice forming. Some means of insulation or heat tape in this situation will usually prevent damage. Another option for cold climates is the "freeze tolerant ball valve". This style of ball valve incorporates a freeze plug in the side so in the event of a freeze up, the freeze plug ruptures (acts as a sacrificial disk), thus making for an easy repair. Now instead of replacing the whole valve, just screw in a new freeze plug.
In the case that a ball valve is used for cryogenics or product that may expand inside of the ball, there is a vent drilled into the upstream side of the valve. This is referred to as a vented ball. Safety is the number one concern when engineers specify a vented ball.
A ball valve should not be confused with a "ball-check valve", a type of check valve that uses a solid ball to prevent undesired backflow.
Types Edit
There are five general body styles of ball valves: single body, three-piece body, split body, top entry, and welded. The difference is based on how the pieces of the valve—especially the casing that contains the ball itself—are manufactured and assembled. The valve operation is the same in each case. In addition, there are different styles related to the bore of the ball mechanism itself. And depends on the working pressure, the ball valves are divided as low pressure ball valves and high pressure ball valves. In most industries, the ball valves with working pressure higher than 3000 psi are considered as high pressure ball valves. Usually the max. working pressure for the high pressure ball valves[3] is 7500 psi, and depends on the structure, sizes and sealing materials, the max. working pressure of high pressure ball valves can be up to 15000 psi. High pressure ball valves are mostly used in applications under high pressure such as hydraulic systems, so they are known as hydraulic ball valves also.
Ball valves in sizes up to 2 inch generally come in single piece, two or three piece designs. One piece ball valves are almost always reduced bore, are relatively inexpensive and generally are throw-away. Two piece ball valves are generally slightly reduced (or standard) bore, they can be either throw-away or repairable. The 3 piece design allows for the center part of the valve containing the ball, stem & seats to be easily removed from the pipeline. This facilitates efficient cleaning of deposited sediments, replacement of seats and gland packings, polishing out of small scratches on the ball, all this without removing the pipes from the valve body. The design concept of a three piece valve is for it to be repairable.
Full port Edit
A full port or more commonly known full bore ball valve has an over-sized ball so that the hole in the ball is the same size as the pipeline resulting in lower friction loss. Flow is unrestricted but the valve is larger and more expensive so this is only used where free flow is required, for example in pipelines which require pigging.
Body materials may include, but are not limited to, any of these materials:
Stainless steel
Brass
Bronze
Chrome
Titanium
PVC
CPVC
PFA-lined And many more
There are many different types of seats and seals that are used in ball valves as well. Each has specific applications they are good for due to the chemical compatibility, pressures, and temperatures. Some of the materials used are:
