The Utility of Flap Check Valves
Control over substance flow is a common desire for different industries and businesses. The ability to manipulate the gas or liquid flowing through a system generally determines the success of production. Usually, the flow is manipulated in order to ensure that substances are properly filtered or refined and circulated to appropriate areas, or to deliver the proper amount of a substance to a needed area for further production activity. Flap check valves are able to help provide control over the flow of substances in a piping system.
Specifically, flap check valves determine the direction in which a gas or liquid will move through a piping system. Flap check valves are able to open completely in one direction, which allows a great deal of substance to pass through without having a huge affect on the volume or pressure of the overall flow. Flap check valves only operate in one direction, however, and the substances are not able to flow backwards through the system after they pass through in that desired direction.
The ability of flap check valves to control the direction of a substance flowing through a system could be critical to the operations of the machinery involved. In some cases, a backflow may be incredibly damaging to the systems and equipment that were only intended to process substances in one direction. In these cases flap check valves help to ensure that operations always run smoothly. The flap check valves could also be viewed as a type of insurance investment, since installing them will help prevent future expensive system overhauls and replacements.
Flap check valves are generally small. Other fixtures tend to take up much more room in a pipeline than flap check valves do. Additionally, flap check valves are usually made out of some sort of plastic material. Plastic materials do not usually offer any threat of contamination to the substances that are moving through a pipe system. Other types of materials, however, may not allow for the passage of substances without the risk of pollution. Flap check valves made from plastic are also able to stay well-maintained for long periods of time, especially because they do not rust after coming in contact with liquids.
Flap check valves are available in a variety of sizes, and can be specially ordered to fit the size of a pipe in a certain system of applications. If the valve is larger than eight inches, a spacer is also recommended. When installed in conjunction with the flap check valve, the spacer allows the actual valve to open all of the way and not interfere with the substance flow passing through. These spacers are not always required for large flap check valves, but businesses should be aware of their availability in case their particular system would benefit from such an implementation.
The high levels of reliability that flap check valves provide, along with their low level of maintenance, make them a desirable choice for many industrial businesses. The variety of sizes and universality of flap check valves available allow for each business to select the one most appropriate for their uses.
