MANUAL VALVES

Manual valve actuators do not require an outside power source to move a valve
to a desired position. Instead, they use a handwheel, chainwheel, lever, or
declutchable mechanism to drive a series of gears whose ratio results in a higher
output torque compared to the input (manual) torque. Most manual valve actuators
use worm gears, mechanical devices that transmit motion between non-intersecting
right-angle axes. Some manual valve actuators move rotary motion valves such
as ball, butterfly, and multiturn valves a quarter-turn or more from open to close.
Other manual valve actuators move linear motion valves such as gate, globe,
diaphragm, pinch, and angle valves. Typically, these valves have a sliding stem that
pushes the closure element open or closed. Depending on the valves design, the
stem may rise during rotation or without rotation. The clockwise rotation of a direct-
acting actuator causes the valve to close in a clockwise direction. By contrast, the
clockwise rotation of a reverse-acting actuator causes the valve to close in a
counter-clockwise direction.

Selecting manual valve actuators requires an analysis of performance

specifications. Manual actuators for rotary valves vary in terms of actuator torque
and range of motion. Torque, the measure of force needed to produce rotary motion,
is determined by multiplying the applied force by the distance from the pivot point
to the point where the force is applied. Common ranges of motion include 90
(quarter-turn), 180, 270, and 360 (multi-turn). Manual valve actuators for linear
valves differ in terms of valve stem stroke length, number of turns, and actuator
force or seating thrust. Typically, stroke length is measured in inches (in) while
actuator force is measuring in pounds (lbs). Other important specifications for
manual valve actuators include stem diameter and, when applicable, handwheel
diameter.

Manual valve actuators are often housed in enclosures that are rated by the
National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), a trade organization which
defines safety standards for electrical equipment. Type 4 NEMA enclosures are rated
for indoor and outdoor use and provide protection from falling dirt, rain, sleet, snow,
windblown dust, splashing water and hose-directed water. Type 4X NEMA enclosures
provide protection against these same environmental variables and can also resist
corrosion. Type 7 NEMA enclosures are constructed for indoor use in hazardous
locations categorized as Class I; Division 1; Groups A, B, C, or D in NFPA70, a
directive from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Type 9 NEMA
enclosures are constructed for indoor use in hazardous locations classified as Class
II; Division 1; Groups E, F, or G in NFPA70.

Control valves are valves used mainly within industrial plants to control operating
conditions such as temperature, pressure, flow, and liquid level by fully or partially
opening or closing in response to signals received from controllers that compare a
"setpoint" to a "process variable" whose value is provided by sensors that monitor
changes in such conditions.

The opening or closing of control valves is done by means of electrical, hydraulic or

pneumatic systems. Positioners are used to control the opening or closing of the
actuator based on Electric or Pnuematic Signals.
Globe control valve with pneumatic actuator and smart positioner

Categories in Manual Valves:

(1) Ball Valve (2) Globe Valve (3) Gate Valve (4) Butterfly Valve

(5) Check Valve (6) Diaphragm Valve (7) Plug Valve

(1) A ball valve is a valve that opens by turning a handle attached to a ball
inside the valve. The ball has a hole, or port, through the middle so that when
the port is in line with both ends of the valve, flow will occur. When the valve
is closed, the hole is perpendicular to the ends of the valve, and flow is
blocked. The handle or lever will be inline with the port position letting you
"see" the valve's position. The ball valve, along with the butterfly valve and
plug valve, are part of the family of quarter turn valves.
Ball valves are durable and usually work to achieve perfect shutoff even after years
of disuse. They are therefore an excellent choice for shutoff applications (and are
often preferred to globe valves and gate valves for this purpose). They do not offer
the fine control that may be necessary in throttling applications but are sometimes
used for this purpose.

Ball valves are used extensively in industry because they are very versatile,
pressures up to 10,000 psi, temperatures up to 200 Deg C. Sizes from 1/4" to 12"
are readily available They are easy to repair, operate manually or by actuators.

The body of ball valves may be made of metal, plastic or metal with a ceramic
center. The ball is often chrome plated to make it more durable.

(2) A Globe valve is a type of valve used for regulating flow in a pipeline,
consisting of a movable disk-type element and a stationary ring seat in a
generally spherical body.

Globe Valves are named for their spherical body shape with the two halves of the
body being separated by an internal baffle. This has an opening that forms a seat
onto which a movable plug can be screwed in to close (or shut) the valve. The plug
is also called a disc or disk. In globe valves, the plug is connected to a stem which is
operated by screw action in manual valves. Typically, automated valves use sliding
stems. Automated globe valves have a smooth stem rather than threaded and are
opened and closed by an actuator assembly. When a globe valve is manually
operated, the stem is turned by a handwheel.

Although globe valves in the past had the spherical bodies which gave them their
name, many modern globe valves do not have much of a spherical shape. However,
the term globe valve is still often used for valves that have such an internal
mechanism. In plumbing, valves with such a mechanism are also often called stop
valves since they don't have the global appearance, but the term stop valve may
refer to valves which are used to stop flow even when they have other mechanisms
or designs.

Globe valves are used for applications requiring throttling and frequent operation.
For example, globe valves or valves with a similar mechanism may be used as
sampling valves, which are normally shut except when liquid samples are being
taken. Since the baffle restricts flow, they're not recommended where full,
unobstructed flow is required.

(3) A gate valve, also known as a sluice valve, is a valve that opens by lifting a
round or rectangular gate/wedge out of the path of the fluid. The distinct
 feature of a gate valve is the sealing surfaces between the gate and seats are
planar. The gate faces can form a wedge shape or they can be parallel. Gate
valves are sometimes used for regulating flow, but many are not suited for
that purpose, having been designed to be fully opened or closed. When fully
open, the typical gate valve has no obstruction in the flow path, resulting in
very low friction loss.

22mm gate valve on domestic hot water pipe

Gate valves are characterized as having either a rising or a non-rising stem. Rising
stems provide a visual indication of valve position. Non-rising stems are used where
vertical space is limited or underground.

Bonnets provide leak proof closure for the valve body. Gate valves may have a
screw-in, union, or bolted bonnet. Screw-in bonnet is the simplest, offering a
durable, pressure-tight seal. Union bonnet is suitable for applications requiring
frequent inspection and cleaning. It also gives the body added strength. Bolted
bonnet is used for larger valves and higher pressure applications.

Another type of bonnet construction in a gate valve is pressure seal bonnet. This
construction is adopted for valves for high pressure service, typically in excess of 15
MPa (2250 psi). The unique feature about the pressure seal bonnet is that the body -
bonnet joints seals improves as the internal pressure in the valve increases,
compared to other constructions where the increase in internal pressure tends to
create leaks in the body-bonnet joint.

Gate valves normally have flanged ends which are drilled according to pipeline
compatible flange dimensional standards. Gate valves are typically constructed
from cast iron, ductile iron, cast carbon steel, gun metal, stainless steel, alloy steels,
and forged steels.

(4) A butterfly valve is a type of flow control device, typically used to regulate a
fluid flowing through a section of pipe. The valve is similar in operation to a
ball valve. A flat circular plate is positioned in the center of the pipe. The
plate has a rod through it connected to an actuator on the outside of the
valve. Rotating the actuator turns the plate either parallel or perpendicular to
the flow. Unlike a ball valve, the plate is always present within the flow
therefore a pressure drop is always induced in the flow regardless of valve
position.

A butterfly valve is from a family of valves called quarter-turn valves. The "butterfly"
is a metal disc mounted on a rod. When the valve is closed, the disc is turned so
that it completely blocks off the passageway. When the valve is fully open, the disc
is rotated a quarter turn so that it allows an almost unrestricted passage of the
process fluid. The valve may also be opened incrementally to regulate flow.
There are different kinds of butterfly valves, each adapted for different pressures
and different usage. The resilient butterfly valve, which uses the flexibility of rubber,
has the lowest pressure rating. The high performance butterfly valve, used in
slightly higher-pressure systems, features a slight offset in the way the disc is
positioned, which increases the valve's sealing ability and decreases its tendency to
wear. The valve best suited for high-pressure systems is the tricentric butterfly
valve, which makes use of a metal seat, and is therefore able to withstand a greater
amount of pressure.

The butterfly valve has a body, a resilient seat, a butterfly disk, a stem, packing, a
notched positioning plate, and an actuator. The resilient seat is under compression
when it is mounted in the valve body, thus making a seal around the periphery of
the disk and both upper and lower points where the stem passes through the seat.
Packing is provided to form a positive seal around the stem for added protection in
case the seal formed by the seat should become damaged. To close or open a
butterfly valve, the actuator is turned only one quarter turn to rotate the disk from
0 to 90. Actuators used on butterfly valves vary based on the application and size
of the valve. A simple handle oriented in the same direction of the metal disc (to
indicate valve position) is common. Some larger butterfly valves may have a
handwheel that operates through a gearing arrangement to operate the valve. This
method is used especially where space limitation prevents use of a long handle.
Acuators may also be air driven or electrically operated when used as part of an
automated control system.

Butterfly valves are relatively easy to maintain. The resilient seat is held in place by
mechanical means, and neither bonding nor cementing is necessary, because the
seat is replaceable, the valve seat does not require lapping, grinding, or machine
work.

Butterfly valves are valves with a circular body and a rotary motion disk closure
member which is pivotally supported by its stem. A Butterfly valve can come in
various styles including eccentric and high-performance valves. These are normally
a type of valve that uses a flat plate to control the flow of water. As well as this,
Butterfly valves are used on fire apparatus and typically are used on larger lines,
such as front and rear suctions and tank to pump lines. A Butterfly valve is also a
type of flow control device, used to make a fluid start or stop flowing through a
section of pipe. The valve is similar in operation to a ball valve. Rotating the handle
turns the plate either parallel or perpendicular to the flow of water, shutting off the
flow. It is a very well known and well used design.

(5) A check valve, clack valve, non-return valve or one-way valve is a

mechanical device, a valve, which normally allows fluid (liquid or gas) to flow
through it in only one direction. Check valves are two-port valves, meaning
they have two openings in the body, one for fluid to enter and the other for
fluid to leave. There are various types of check valves used in a wide variety
of applications. Check valves are often part of common household items.
Although they are available in a wide range of sizes and costs, many check
valves are very small, simple, and/or cheap. Check valves work automatically
and most are not controlled by a person or any external control; accordingly,
most do not have any valve handle or stem. The bodies (external shells) of
most check valves are made of plastic or metal.
An important concept in check valves is the cracking pressure which is the
minimum upstream pressure at which the valve will operate. Typically the check
valve is designed for and can therefore be specified for a specific cracking pressure.

Heart valves are essentially inlet and outlet check valves for the heart ventricles,
since the ventricles act as a pump.

(6) Diaphragm valves (or membrane valves) consists of a valve body with two
or more ports, a diaphragm, and a "saddle" or seat upon which the
diaphragm closes the valve. The valve is constructed from either plastic or
steel.

Originally, the diaphragm valve was developed for use in non-hygienic applications.
Later on the design was adapted for use in the bio-pharmaceutical industry by using
compliant materials that can withstand sanitizing and sterilizing methods.

There are two main categories of diaphragm valves: one type seals over a "weir"
(saddle) and the other (sometimes called a "straight-way" valve) seals over a seat.
The main difference is that a saddle-type valve has its two ports in line with each
other on the opposite sides of the valve, whereas the seat-type has the in/out ports
located at a 90 degree angle from one another. The saddle type is the most
common in process applications and the seat-type is more commonly used as a tank
bottom valve but exists also as a process valve. While diaphragm valves usually
come in two-port forms, they can also come with three ports and even more. When
more than three ports are included, they generally require more than one
diaphragm; however, special dual actuators can handle more ports with one
membrane.

Diaphragm valves can be manual or automated. Their application is generally as

shut-off valves in process systems within the food and beverage, pharmaceutical
and biotech industries. The older generation of these valves is not suited for
regulating and controlling process flows, however newer developments in this area
have successfully tackled this problem.

In addition to the well known, two way shut off diaphragm valve, other types
include: three way zero dead leg valve, sterile access port, block and bleed, valbow
and tank bottom valve just to name a few.

Diaphragm valves can be controlled by various types of actuators. The most

common diaphragm valves use pneumatic actuators; in this type of valve, air
pressure is applied through a Schrader valve which raises the diaphragm and opens
the valve. This type of valve is extremely quick and as such is one of the more
common valves used in operations where valve speed is a necessity.

Hydraulic diaphragm valves also exist for higher pressure and lower speed
operations. Some diaphragm valves are also controlled manually.

(7) Plug valves are valves with cylindrical or conically-tapered "plugs" which
can be rotated inside the valve body to control flow through the valve. The
plugs in plug valves have one or more hollow passageways going sideways
through the plug, so that fluid can flow through the plug when the valve is
open. Plug valves are simple and often economical.
When the plug is conically-tapered, the stem/handle is typically attached to the
larger diameter end of the plug. Plug valves usually do not have bonnets but often
have the end of the plug with the handle exposed or mostly exposed to the outside.
In cases like that, there is usually not much of a stem. The stem and handle often
come in one piece, often a simple, approximately L-shaped handle attached to the
end of the plug. The other end of the plug is often exposed to the outside of the
valve too, but with a mechanism which retains the plug in the body.

The simplest and most common general type of plug valve is a 2-port valve, which
has two positions, opens to allow flow, and shut (closed) to stop flow. Ports are
openings in the valve body through which fluid can enter or leave. The plug in this
kind of valve has one passageway going through it. The ports are typically at
opposite ends of the body; therefore, the plug is rotated a fourth of a full turn to
change from open to shut positions. This makes this kind of plug valve a quarter-
turn valve. There is often a mechanism limiting motion of the handle to a quarter
turn, but not in glass stopcocks.

Slightly conically-tapered metal (often brass) plug valves are often used as simple
shut-off valves in household natural gas lines.

It is also possible for a plug valve to have more than two ports. In a 3-way plug
valve, flow from one port could be directed to either the second or third port. A 3-
way plug valve could also be designed to shift flow between ports 1 and 2, 2 and 3,
or 1 and 3, and possibly even connect all three ports together. The flow-directing
possibilities in multi-port plug valves are similar to the possibilities in corresponding
multi-port ball valves or corresponding multi-port valves with a rotor. An additional
possibility in plug valves is the have one port on one side of the plug valve and two
ports on the other side, with two diagonal and parallel fluid pathways inside the
plug. In this case the plug can be rotated 180 to connect the port on the one side
to either of the two ports on the other side.

Stopcocks used in laboratory glassware are typically forms of conically-tapered plug

valves. When fused with the glassware, the valve bodies are made of glass.
Otherwise, they can be made of an inert plastic such as Teflon. The plugs can be
made of a similar plastic or glass. When the plug is made of glass, the handle and
plug are fused together in one piece out of glass. When glass is used for both the
stopcock body and the plug, the contacting surfaces between them are special
ground glass surfaces (see Laboratory glassware) often with stopcock grease in
between. Special glass stopcocks are made for vacuum applications, such as in use
with vacuum manifolds. Stopcock grease is always used in high vacuum
applications to make the stopcock air-tight.

Reference:

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SOLENOID VALVE

A solenoid valve is an electromechanical valve for use with liquid or gas controlled
by running or stopping an electric current through a solenoid, which is a coil of wire,
thus changing the state of the valve. The operation of a solenoid valve is similar to
that of a light switch, but typically controls the flow of air or water, whereas a light
switch typically controls the flow of electricity. Solenoid valves may have two or
more ports: in the case of a two-port valve the flow is switched on or off; in the case
of a three-port valve, the outflow is switched between the two outlet ports. Multiple
solenoid valves can be placed together on a manifold.

Solenoid valves are the most frequently used control elements in fluidics. Their
tasks are to shut off, release, dose, distribute or mix fluids. They are found in many
application areas. Solenoids offer fast and safe switching, high reliability, long
service life, good medium compatibility of the materials used, low control power and
compact design.

Besides the plunger-type actuator which is used most frequently, pivoted-armature

actuators and rocker actuators are also used.

Working Principle

A solenoid valve has two main parts: the solenoid and the valve. The solenoid
converts electrical energy into mechanical energy which, in turn, opens or closes
the valve mechanically. A Direct Acting valve has only a small flow circuit, shown
within section E of this diagram (this section is mentioned below as a pilot valve).
This Diaphragm Piloted Valve multiplies this small flow by using it to control the flow
through a much larger orifice.

Solenoid valves may use metal seals or rubber seals, and may also have electrical
interfaces to allow for easy control. A spring may be used to hold the valve opened
or closed while the valve is not activated.
A- Input side
B- Diaphragm
C- Pressure chamber
D- Pressure relief conduit
E- Solenoid
F- Output side

The diagram to the right shows the design of a basic valve. If we look at the top
figure we can see the valve in its closed state. The water under pressure enters at
A. B is an elastic diaphragm and above it is a weak spring pushing it down. The
function of this spring is irrelevant for now as the valve would stay closed even
without it. The diaphragm has a pinhole through its center which allows a very small
amount of water to flow through it. This water fills the cavity C on the other side of
the diaphragm so that pressure is equal on both sides of the diaphragm. While the
pressure is the same on both sides of the diaphragm, the force is greater on the
upper side which forces the valve shut against the incoming pressure. By looking at
the figure we can see the surface being acted upon is greater on the upper side
which results in greater force. On the upper side the pressure is acting on the entire
surface of the diaphragm while on the lower side it is only acting on the incoming
pipe. This results in the valve being securely shut to any flow and, the greater the
input pressure, the greater the shutting force will be.

Now let us turn our attention to the small conduit D. Until now it was blocked by a
pin which is the armature of the solenoid E and which is pushed down by a spring. If
we now activate the solenoid drawing the pin upwards via magnetic force from the
solenoid current, the water in chamber C will flow through this conduit D to the
output side of the valve. The pressure in chamber C will drop and the incoming
pressure will lift the diaphragm thus opening the main valve. Water now flows
directly from A to F.

When the solenoid is again deactivated and the conduit D is closed again, the
spring needs very little force to push the diaphragm down again and the main valve
closes. In practice there is often no separate spring, the elastomer diaphragm is
moulded so that it functions as its own spring, preferring to be in the closed shape.

From this explanation it can be seen that this type of valve relies on a differential of
pressure between input and output as the pressure at the input must always be
greater than the pressure at the output for it to work. Should the pressure at the
output, for any reason, rise above that of the input then the valve would open
regardless of the state of the solenoid and pilot valve.

In some solenoid valves the solenoid acts directly on the main valve. Others use a
small, complete solenoid valve, known as a pilot, to actuate a larger valve. While
the second type is actually a solenoid valve combined with a pneumatically
actuated valve, they are sold and packaged as a single unit referred to as a solenoid
valve. Piloted valves require much less power to control, but they are noticeably
slower. Piloted solenoids usually need full power at all times to open and stay open,
where a direct acting solenoid may only need full power for a short period of time to
open it, and only low power to hold it.

Common Uses

A common use for 2 way solenoid valves is in central heating. The solenoid valves
are controlled by an electrical signal from the thermostat to regulate the flow of
heated water to the heating elements within the occupied space. Such valves are
particularly useful when multiple heating zones are fed by a single heat source.
Commercially available solenoid valves for this purpose are often referred to as
zone valves.

Another common use for solenoid valves is in automatic irrigation sprinkler systems.
See also Controller (irrigation).

In the paintball industry solenoid valves are usually referred to simply as

"solenoids." They are commonly used to control a larger valve used to control the
propellant (usually compressed air or CO 2). In the industry, "solenoid" may also refer
to an electromechanical solenoid commonly used to actuate a sear.

Solenoid valves are also used for air control, to control fluid flow, and in
pharmacology experiments, especially for patch-clamp, which can control the
application of agonist or antagonist.

Reference:

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia