Common Industrial Valves and Features

Valves are an unavoidable topic when it comes to plumbing. We often hear all kinds of confusing valve names, especially when we recently compiled this Chinese-English comparison table. Due to the lack of understanding of valves, we had no idea where to start, so we decided to sort out some common valve types, and friends who are interested can learn about them together.

Ball Valve

●Working principle:

The flow rate is controlled by rotating the ball with holes, and it can be fully opened or closed by rotating 90 degrees.

● Features:

Good sealing performance, easy operation, small fluid resistance, simple structure, suitable for rapid opening and closing.

● Application scenarios:

Widely used in water treatment, petrochemical, natural gas pipelines and other fields, suitable for automatic control.

Gate Valve

● Working principle:

The switch of the fluid is controlled by lifting the gate, which is suitable for fully open or fully closed working conditions, but not suitable for regulating flow.

● Features:

The gate valve has good sealing performance, but due to the long switching time, frequent operation is inconvenient.

● Application scenario:

It is mainly used for large-diameter, high-pressure pipelines that need to completely cut off the fluid, such as water, steam, oil, natural gas, etc.

Butterfly Valve

● Working principle:

Compact structure, small size, light weight, adjust flow or cut off fluid by rotating butterfly plate.

● Features:

Quick opening and closing, but relatively poor sealing.

● Application scenarios:

Applicable to large-diameter, low-pressure pipeline systems, such as water supply and drainage, cooling water circulation, etc.

Globe Valve

●Working principle:

Control the fluid by rotating the hand wheel to move the valve disc up and down, suitable for flow regulation and frequent operation.

● Features:

Good sealing, fast opening and closing speed, but large fluid resistance, relatively complex structure, and high pressure loss.

● Application scenario:

Mostly used in working conditions that require flow regulation, such as boilers, HVAC, steam systems, etc.

Check Valve

● Working principle:

The valve that prevents the backflow of the medium automatically opens and closes based on the pressure of the medium flow.

● Features:

Usually used to prevent backflow in the pipeline, no manual operation is required, and the structure is simple.

● Application scenarios:

Widely used in pipelines such as water pump outlets and drainage systems that need to prevent backflow.

Safety Valve

● Working principle:

When the system pressure exceeds the set value, the valve automatically opens to release the pressure, and automatically closes after the pressure is restored to protect the equipment and system from overpressure damage.

● Features:

The safety valve has high sensitivity and automatically responds to pressure changes to prevent system overpressure and protect equipment safety.

● Application scenarios:

Used for overpressure protection of equipment such as boilers, pressure vessels, and pipeline systems.

Needle Valve

● Working principle:

The needle valve core moves up and down by rotating the handwheel to achieve precise adjustment and control of the fluid.

● Features:

Precisely control the flow, good sealing, suitable for high-pressure and small-flow systems, and slow opening and closing speed.

● Application scenarios:

Widely used in laboratory equipment, gas or liquid regulation systems, high-pressure and small-flow control and other occasions.

Plug Valve

● Working principle:

Rotate the cylindrical or conical plug to align or intersect the plug channel with the pipeline to control the opening and closing of the fluid.

● Features:

Simple structure, fast opening and closing, suitable for frequent operation.

● Application scenario:

Widely used for opening and closing control of natural gas, petroleum and chemical pipeline systems.

Angle Valve

● Working principle:

Manually rotate the valve stem to move the valve core up and down to control the on and off of the water flow.

● Features:

Compact design, easy installation, used for local water flow control, suitable for 90-degree pipe connection.

● Application scenario:

Water flow control in household water systems, such as faucets, toilets, etc.

Solenoid Valve

● Working principle:

The electromagnetic coil is powered on or off to generate electromagnetic force to move the valve core and open or close the valve. When the power is off, the valve core is reset and the valve is closed.

● Features:

Quick response, remote control, suitable for automation systems.

● Application scenarios:

Widely used in automatic control systems, such as automatic opening and closing control of water, gas and oil pipelines.

Valve knowledge is very complex, and the classification is far more than these. Here we just summarize the common ones. It is enough to know what each valve looks like and what its characteristics are.