Ball Valve

What is a ball valve? A ball valve, one kind of quarter turn valve, is in effect literally a ball placed in a passageway thru which liquid flows. The ball has a hole through it, by which the valve opens and closes. When the ball is positioned so that the hole runs the same direction as the passageway, the fluid simply flows through the hole, and the valve is open. However , when the ball is positioned so that the hole is perpendicular to the passage way, the liquid cannot pass through, and the valve is closed. The ball is controlled from outside of the valve, frequently with a handle that is turned ninety degrees, or a quarter turn, forwards and backwards to open and close the valve.

The basic ball valve is a two-way valve. This ball valve has a single, straight passageway bored thru the ball, making two openings : one on each side, an inlet and an outlet. A ball valve may also be a three-way valve if a 3rd hole is bored partially thru the ball, till it meets the main hole, forming a T. A three- way ball valve can shut off one or all of the 3 passage ways it connects.

Because of the nature of the ball valve, it does not work well in eventualities in which fine control over the valve is needed, for example the valve that controls the throttle in a vehicle. a ball valve works very well for situations in which a flow should be totally shut off,eg the shut-off valve on the main water line in your house. Ball valve also don't incline to develop issues if they're not used for long periods of time ; they'll still work completely when needed again.

There are three different types of ball valve. A full port ball valve offers no flow limitation, meaning that when the ball valve is open, the liquid can flow readily through it. This is done by making the ball bigger than the passage size, so that the hole bored thru it can be the same size as the passage. A standard port ball valve doesn't have an oversized ball, and as a consequence the hole is one size smaller than the passage way. This presents a small amount of flow restriction as the fluid passes thru the ball valve. A reduced port ball valve, on the other hand, has an even smaller ball and an even smaller hole, which creates significant flow limitation as the liquid passes through the valve.

The writer to this article is an engineer of a company offering ball valve manufacturing and related fluid control manufacturing.

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