Could You Please Briefly Introduce The Development Of Flanged Ball Valve?

Flanged Ball Valve are common in our daily lives, but when did they first become available?

As early as the 1880s, the lack of suitable sealing materials in the United States hampered the development of stainless steel ball valves, preventing them from becoming a formal industrial product. It wasn't until the 1950s, with the emergence of elastic sealing materials such as polytetrafluoroethylene, that their emergence and development saw a turnaround. The development of the machine tool industry also enabled improvements in ball processing technology, enabling the required dimensional accuracy and surface roughness to be achieved.

Currently, the maximum nominal diameter has reached 3050 mm. A pump station provides four ball valves, each designed for a turbine outlet shut-off valve, with a design pressure of 4.8 MPa. The maximum operating pressure of a ball valve has reached 72 MPa, with a corresponding temperature of up to 1000°C.

Stainless steel ball valves are widely used not only in general industrial pipelines, but also in various sectors such as petroleum, chemical, power generation, aviation, rocketry, papermaking, and atomic energy. They are also commonly used in liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen pipelines in the nuclear and aerospace industries.

Its features include corrosion resistance, light weight, and low cost. It is increasingly used in waterways and chemical pipelines. The 6-inch plastic ball valve offers high strength, excellent heat and corrosion resistance, and is suitable for temperatures below 250°C.

Large-diameter oil (or natural gas) pipelines are a key application area for ball valves. The nominal diameter range is 600-1400mm, and the operating pressure is typically 8.0 MPa. To ensure safety, some manufacturers conduct tests such as bending resistance tests, comprehensive weather resistance tests, fire spread prevention tests, and emergency shutoff tests based on the specific characteristics of pipeline ball valves and the environmental conditions they are exposed to.