All industrial applications
use valves for controlling processes and the way fluids flow. Ancient valves
are the type that open, close, and flap. The design of contemporary valves is
more sophisticated and comes with two mechanisms. A manual and an automatic
valve. Both are effective at regulating the pressure that ensures fluid flow.
The build of this sanitary ball valve makes it a modern control valve. The
design is made to use a spherical disc that is movable and lets the valve to
either allow or block the passage of fluid. The structure of this spherical
disc is engineered such that the immobile body contains a cylindrical hole
running through it. It is through this hole or port as it can also be called
that fluid flow occurs. Here’s how to operate the ball valve:
Operation Mechanism — Quarter Turn
The fluid is directed to flow through the hole by the rotation of the spherical disc. That enables the alignment of the hole to the pathway way of the flow. The rotation can either be done manually or automatically. It all depends on the type of Sanity Ball Valve being operated. A manual system comes with a handle. A handle to manipulate the position of the valve’s port. In the case of automatic valves, the design has actuators that are responsible for making the ball to do a self-change of its position.
The manual control handle aligns with the position of the hole. With this mechanism, you only have to turn the handle 90 degrees to get the port to the path of the fluid.
If you close the valve, that reverses the position of the port, that means its position is perpendicular to the path of the fluid and blocks the fluid flow effectively. The reason the ball valve is categorized together with other quarter-turn valves is due to the 90-degree turn.
In contrast with system mechanisms of other quarter-turn valves, these ones come with a simple design. Its mechanism of operation offers the type of typical tight shut-off and control that is perfect for sanitary applications.
Sanitary Ball Valve Applications
The valves are manufactured to be used in applications that carry out hygienic or clean processing. These sanitary ball valve are being used in chemical, biopharmaceutical, medical, food, dairy, and beverage. Also, personal care applications like cosmetics use them.
Why Are Ball Valves Sanitary?
• The valves reduce cavities and crevices so that they don’t trap media, attracting bacteria
• They put tri-clamp end, but-weld, flanges, tight-shut off threads which prevent any contamination from outside sources.
• They put to use seats of FDA approved Teflon as well as other cavity fillers, limiting the entrapment of fluid.
• Since their contact surfaces are refined, they are Aseptic.
Specifications of Sanitary Ball Valves
Before you purchase any Sanitary Ball Valves, first think of the reason, you want them and the specifications. Sterile processing applications come in varieties and are compatible with different specifications in terms of diameter, material temperature, operation temperature, and working pressure. It is across the cylindrical hole that the measurement diameter should be taken.
The measurements to consider can be pipe measure for Nominal Pipe Size or tubing measure to get the Outside Diameter (OD). The most applied is the tubing measure. Almost the entire measurements of sanitary piping are conducted in tube OD. That implies that the tube’s outside diameter measurement should be considered.
There are also some Sanitary Ball Valves that come with more than a single outlet and inlet holes. They include Sanitary Ball Valves that have an L or T port ball drilling which makes them become 3-way or 2-way ball valves. However, with radiuses within the lowest standard, the media entrapment will be limited.
The level of the working pressure meant for the valve to function is also to be considered. 800 PSI or 1000 PSI is the ratings of standard pressure. The operating temperature is that ambient temperature ranges that get the valve to function well. Material temperature refers to the media (fluid) temperature that is suitable for the valve seat.
Materials
Sanitary ball valves are either made of metallic or plastic material. The commonest types of metal and alloys types include steel, iron, copper, bronze, brass, cast iron, and stainless steel. Additional noble alloys like L6XN and Hastelloy are also included. However, their availability is limited in terms of size and quantities.
You can go for ball valves such as the duplex or super duplex varieties which handle corrosion-resistant applications. On the other hand are plastic options which include PVC, CPVC, reinforced nylon glass, and PVDF. Materials made of plastic bodies are appropriate for low temperature as well as pressure applications.
Cavity fillers are made for Sanity Ball Valves that are non-retention include FDA approved hygienic elastomers such as Teflon, Teflon PTFE seat and Viton for preventing the retention of fluid and the build-up of bacteria.
Design Features
• Full Bore Design for maintaining fluid pressure.
• Reduced Bore Design used for high-velocity fluid flow
• Decent Surface Finish
Why Many Consider Sanitary Ball Valves Aseptic
Are Sanitary Ball Valves as clean as many deem? Polished steel makes up most of the material used for designing Sanitary Ball Valves. They are FDA approved Teflon cavity fillers for limiting the entrapment of fluid and the growth of bacteria.
Additionally, the ends of
the valves can be designed as butt-weld or tri-clamp for a tight sealing to
minimize any contamination from outside sources. Hence, Sanitary Ball Valves
are Aseptic and are also appropriate applications that are highly sterile.
When cleaning the valves, you have to disassemble it to be able to clean the
fluids that have been trapped in the crevices around its interior.
With time, the design of modern valves has been upgraded such that it’s simple and comes with a clean-in-place (CIP) ability that uses the newly designed Encapsulation of the Teflon (PTFE) seat. With the encapsulation, all the internal crevices responsible for entrapping fluid will be eliminated. This makes in-site maintenance of these cleanable valves quite simple.
