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FHT Valves - Metal-Metal Guided Ball Valves for Industrial Applications
Guided ball valves in industrial applications are designed to offer improved stability through a second anchoring axis at the shutter's bottom, known as a trunnion. This design prevents the ball from deviating from its axis, ensuring a reliable seal on both sides, making it particularly effective for three and four-way valves, as well as applications with very low pressure where flow is insufficient to push the ball downstream. These metal-seated valves provide resilience in corrosive environments and high-temperature conditions, due to their material composition, like copper-based alloys for low pressure and nickel-based alloys for corrosive media. Despite metal seats potentially costing more and being more prone to leakage than soft seats, they outmatch soft-seated valves under harsh conditions like acids, high heat, abrasives, erosion, and corrosion. At FHT Valves, we offer an extensive range of guided ball valves with various seat configurations to meet challenging industrial needs.
Guided ball valves work in the same way as floating ball valves, but in this case the ball is anchored by a second shaft at the bottom of the plug, called a trunnion. This prevents the ball from moving off its shaft. Guided ball valves can maintain a proper seal on both sides at once. This is conducive to 3-way or 4-way valves and valves in very low pressure applications where the flow is not sufficient to push the ball against its downstream seat.
These valves are effective in low and high pressure applications, and require less torque than floating ball valves.
Metal Seat
Metal seats are suitable for corrosive environments and products, as well as for elevated temperatures. They are also suitable seats where solid particles are present. Copper alloy, for example, is a suitable material for low-pressure valves. Nickel-based alloys are often the ideal choice for corrosive media. Depending on the type of material, these valves can generally withstand harsher conditions than soft-seated valves, including acids, heat, abrasives, hydraulic shock, erosion, corrosion and pressure.
Metal seated valves generally cost more than soft seated valves, but they can also typically leak more than a soft seated valve .
In our extensive catalogue of ball valves you can discover all the models we have at FHT Valves.