Thursday, August 23, 2012

Comparisons Between a Gate Valve and a Ball Valve

The prosperity of the valve industry has been shown in many fields. Actually, there is great variety of the types of the valve. All these types are making their own contributions to the development of the whole modern industry. As we all know, valves are made to control the flow of gases, liquids and granular solids in many systems. In order to meet various requirements, valves are designed and manufactured with a wide range of the types, sizes, materials, working temperature and pressure and means of actuation and so on. At this moment, we take the type of the ball valve and gate valve out for a comparison.
Firstly, the structure differs. As we all know that a ball valve features the spherical closure element with a round or other-shaped hole in the middle and a gate valve features the lifting and dropping wedge. And the number of the holding ports varies. A gate valve has two ports, which is Gate Valve called an inlet and an outlet. But a ball valve usually has two or more ports. However, when referring to the connections to the ports, they would be with the same ones, including the threaded, soldered or flanged connection.
Secondly, a gate valve and a ball valve vary at the mean of the actuation. Commonly speaking, a gate valve is typically with manual operation. Such is from the consideration of the precise isolation of the flow. Except from the manual operation, a ball valve is also able to be driven by the electric and pneumatic actuators.
At last, the flow, which under control by the two types of the valve, turns out to be with Butterfly Valve different characteristics. Due to the specially designed structure, a gate valve is not suitable to be opened and closed partially. As a result, a gate valve is required to shut the flow off in time in many available systems. At the same time, a ball valve is mainly designed to be able for the regulating situations. The flow is closely proportional to the rotation of the spherical device with a hole in the middle of it.