Benefits of Lined Butterfly Valves

Lined butterfly valves provide companies with the control necessary to regulate the flow of process media through their system. These are generally either liquids or gases, and a wide variety of industrial systems rely on the manipulation of process media through a piping system in order to meet production standards. Production could revolve around filtering or refining a substance, moving a substance to desired areas at appropriate times for circulation, or utilizing a product in a type of larger scale production. Regardless of the type of industry that needs to regulate substances, lined butterfly valves are able to help them exercise the necessary control.

Lined butterfly valves and ball valves both involve the use of a spherical disc. This disc is positioned within a pipeline, and used to block substance flow when necessary. The disc of a valve can be ordered specifically for the size of the pipes contained in a system, which allows the disc to form a tight seal when it is in the closed position. Lined butterfly valves are in the closed position when the spherical disc is perpendicular to the pipeline. A shaft is attached to the disc component of a lined butterfly valve, and when the shaft moves it changes the position of the round disc. This shaft can be used to open lined butterfly valves by causing them to move the disc to a position parallel to the pipelines. When this change in position occurs, substances are able to pass by the round disc on either side. Overall, the mere presence of lined butterfly valves lowers the pressure of flow, because the disc is always present within the pipeline. Even if the disc is turned to the parallel position, a gas or liquid still needs to go around the disc, and this small amount of resistance does lower the pressure of the flow.

Lined butterfly valves can be automated by a variety of actuators. Electric actuators are commonly used to provide the power necessary for control over disc movement. Electric actuators are favored because they are easily wired into a system, and if anything goes wrong it is generally easier to diagnose the problem in an electric system. Pneumatic and hydraulic actuators can provide more pressure, but they require a pump system to operate, and are harder to diagnose and maintain in general if production does not go as planned.

Lined butterfly valves are often selected by companies for implementation over other valve options, such as ball valves. These decisions are made in part due to cost concerns, as lined butterfly valves are generally cheaper than other options. Butterfly valves are also typically more lightweight than ball valves, which means that less pressure is required to move the valve disc from open to closed positions.

One of the benefits of lined butterfly valves is that they can be situated at positions where they are only partially open. This allows for flow to be controlled without stopping it completely, as a company sometimes requires a lower volume of substance.