Process Butterfly Valve Options

Systems of pipelines and machinery are ubiquitous throughout the industrialized world. Processes need to be controlled and completed, and as such require these systems. Control and manipulation of the process media, such as gases and liquids, that flow through these systems is necessary for production operations to occur. Various types of valves are available to assist plant personnel with this control and manipulation. One option for a valve that could be installed to assist with system operations is the process butterfly valve.

The process butterfly valve can be implemented in a pipeline in order to direct the flow of a gas or liquid. There are several circumstances where flow may need to be limited as it progresses through a system. A process butterfly valve can help to ensure that too much volume of a substance does not enter the next area of a system. This might be particularly important in some factories, as there may be sensitive machinery components that might not hold up well under the influx of a large volume of substance. A process butterfly valve can limit the amount of process media that enters the next section by only opening partially, which prevents the entire volume of media from flowing into a new area all at once.

A process butterfly valve is a type of quarter-turn valve. The disc that directs the flow of a gas or liquid within a pipeline can move from a completely open to a completely closed position within a quarter-turn. When the disc is perpendicular to a pipeline, it creates a seal that the gas or liquid within a system cannot penetrate, and thus it prevents any substances from entering a certain area. The disc of a process butterfly valve is connected to the valve shaft, and this rod turns to move the disc to different open or partially open positions. These positions both allow a substance to pass through, but they control the amount of substance that is able to actually flow. This is known as throttling.

Regardless of how far a process butterfly valve is open, there will be some kind of pressure drop as the substance passes. This pressure drop exists even if the process butterfly valve is completly open and parallel to the pipeline within which it is located. The pressure drop occurs because the disc of the process butterfly valve is still within the path of flow for a substance, and therefore the substance has a type of obstacle in its path that it must flow around in order to pass.

A process butterfly valve can be attached to an actuator, which will provide the necessary power to move the rod and rotate the disc to the necessary position. Different types of actuators that could be used in the operation of a process butterfly valve include electric, pneumatic, and hydraulic actuators. The process butterfly valve can redirect substances in a system in a way that will allow excess pressure to escape the system, and therefore keep production operations running smoothly without dangerous or unnecessary build-up occurring.