Valves are essential for controlling processes and fluid flow in every industrial application. The type of valve models that have an opening, closing, and flapping system are ancient valves. Modern valves are known for their superior designs and two system mechanism which are the manual and automatic valves.
Both of them play the same role which is to regulate the pressure that generates the flow of fluid.
The construction and structure of the sanitary ball valve is what qualifies it as a state-of-the-art control valve for the modern industry. The design is modeled for use with a movable spherical disc that either get the valve to give way or block fluid passage. The spherical disc comes with an engineered structure which has an immobile body with a cylindrical port running through it. Inside this port or hole, fluid flow takes place. Below is how to carry out a ball valve operation:
Mechanism of Operation— Quarter Turn
As the spherical disc rotates, the fluid is systematically directed to flow along the port in an industrial measure. The rotation facilitates the alignment of the port to the passageway of the flow. Irrespective of whether it is a manual or automatic setup, the rotation mechanism functions the same. Both ball valves have differences and systems of operation though. A manual system features a handle. The handle helps in the manipulation of the valve’s port position. When it comes to automatic valves, they have a design with actuators that enable the ball to change its position by itself.
The control handle of the manual system aligns with the port’s position. A mechanism like this, implies that it is only when you turn the handle 90 degrees that you can direct the hole to the fluid path.
Get the valve closed, and you would have reversed the port’s position, meaning putting in a perpendicular position to the fluid path and blocking the effective flow of fluid. The reason this ball valve falls in the same category as other quarter-turn valves is based on the 90-degree turn.
As opposed to the system mechanisms that other quarter-turn valves come with, these Sanitary Ball Valves are quite simple in design and operation. Their mechanism of operation provides a typical tight shut-off as well as the control that is ideal for sanitary applications.
Applications
Sanitary Ball Valves are manufactured for applications that are specialized in hygienic processing. Ball valves are typical equipment used in biopharmaceutical, medical, chemical, food, beverage and other health based industries. Also, the beauty industry uses them in personal care applications such as cosmetics.
Reasons Ball Valves are Sanitary?
- The valves decrease cavities and crevices; hence, media which attracts bacteria does not get trapped.
- They put but-weld, tri-clamp end, flanges and threads of tight-shut off for the prevention of any incoming contamination from external sources.
- They make use of FDA approved Teflon, alongside other cavity fillers which limits how much entrapment the fluid undergoes.
- With refined contact surfaces, the valves are Aseptic.
Specifications
The reason you want to purchase Sanitary Ball Valves should be the first idea in your mind and next, the specifications of the valves. There are wide-ranging types of sterile processing applications that are compatible with diverse specifications when it comes to diameter, operation temperature, material temperature, as well as working pressure. Measuring the diameter has to be done across the cylindrical hole.
The measurements are pipe-measure to know the Nominal Pipe Size and tubing measure for Outside Diameter (OD). The tubing measure is the most commonly applied method. The highest number of sanitary piping measurements is done in tube OD. This means the tube’s exterior diameter measurement is worth considering.
Some other ball valves are designed with more than one (1) outlet and inlet ports. These are Sanitary Ball Valves such as those with an L or T hole ball drilling that makes them appear 3-way or 2-way. However, when radiuses are in the lowest standard, media entrapment reduces.
What about the valve’s working pressure level? It should be considered because it matters significantly. Standard pressure for valves has a rating of 800 PSI or 1000 PSI. The operating temperature refers to the ambient temperature ranges responsible for making a valve function properly. Material temperature simply means media or fluid temperature, which fits the valve seat typically.
Materials
Sanitary ball valves come either in plastic or metallic material. The most common metal and alloy types of Sanitary ball valves are steel, copper, iron, cast iron, brass, bronze, and stainless steel. Noble alloys such as L6XN and Hastelloy make the list too. However, they are scarcely available in quantity and size.
Choosing ball valve varieties like the duplex or super duplex designs that are made to deal with corrosion-resistant applications is an ideal decision to make. Also, plastic options are worth it. They consist of PVC, CPVC, PVDF as well as reinforced nylon glass. Plastic body materials are ideal at low temperature and pressure based applications.
Cavity fillers designed for valves which are non-retention comprise of hygienic elastomers (FDA-approved) like Teflon, Teflon PTFE seat as well as Viton. They are meant to prevent fluid retention and bacteria accumulation.
Design Features
Below are the features Sanitary Ball Valves use:
- Full Bore Design for fluid pressure maintenance.
- Reduced Bore Design for fluid flow in high-velocity
- Decent Surface Finish
Reasons for Considering Sanitary Ball Valves Aseptic
How clean is a Sanitary Ball Valve? The sanitary valves are designed mainly with polished steel. They also come with Teflon cavity fillers (FDA approved) that are responsible for reducing fluid entrapment and how fast bacteria build up. Additionally, the valve ends can be crafted as either tight sealing butt-weld or tri-clamp to limit contamination from external sources. So, Sanitary Ball Valves qualify as aseptic and highly sterile as ideal applications.
To clean the valve adequately such that the trapped fluids in the interior of the crevices are all gotten rid of, disassemble it.
Contemporary valves are a show of how valve designs have evolved over the years. The upgrades have come to a point where the valve is simple in structure and contains a clean-in-place (CIP) function which makes use of the latest design Teflon (PTFE) Encapsulation seat. The encapsulation enables the elimination of every interior crevice that entraps fluid. It simplifies the in-site maintenance of the interior of the cleanable valves.
