A two way ANSI 300 Flanged spring return stainless steel ball valve is constructed of two body pieces and held together by stainless steel bolts. It has a direct mounted anodised aluminium spring return (can be sprung closed or sprung open) rack and pinion actuator fixed to the valve which conducts its 90 degree turn (open,close). This kind of ball valve design (flanged) makes it easy to remove from the line as you do not need to unscrew it to maintain the valve like you would on a threaded valve. It is also very easy to change the valve seats as you can access them directly by unbolting the two halves of the valve. Our design also has a longer neck to reduce thermal transfer and a direct mounting pad for mounting actuators without the use of a bracket and drive dog. They also have a reinforced teflon (PTFE) seat which is filled with 15% glass filler. This allows higher pressures and temperatures up to 180 degrees Celsius, making it suitable for steam applications (refer to the temperature vs pressure graph). If a higher temperature is required, these seats can be changed out to a 50% stainless steel seat. The actuator has a namur interface and position indicator. The ball valve carries a fire safe certification (API607 Sixth Edition).

The 2 way ANSI 300 flanged spring return stainless steel ball valves works the same as any normal two way ball valve, whereby the ball is rotated 90 degrees within the body of the valve which will either open or close the valve. The ball itself has a hole either end which the media will flow through when it is open. When the valve is closed, these holes are blocked off to the flow effectively isolating the media either side of the valve. The ball is turned by a spring rack & pinion actuator which is connected to a shaft which in turn is mated to the ball by a female slot. When the actuator is operated by a 5/2 valve (all double acting actuators need a 5/2 valve to operate, the most common we see is a 5/2 direct interfacing namur solenoid valve) the shaft will be rotated effectively turning the ball inside the cavity and switching it to its other state (either open or close). Extras such as limit switch boxes and positioners can also be mounted directly to the actuator. The actuator is considered fail safe as if air pressure is lost it will return to a fail safe position (either open or closed depending upon how it is set up) under torque given by the springs in the actuator.

Like any valve this depends upon the usage case of your ball valve, its environment, media and how many times it is cycled. For instance if it is on a clean media, in a clean environment and not cycled regularly the life will be decades or more. If it is on a corrosive media and in a dry application with a high cycle rate the life will be much shorter. We conduct regular lab testing and 30,000 cycles is a reasonable life cycle for the ball valve depending upon the application. Repair kits are readily available for valve refurbishment if the application requires. The actuators life will depend upon how clean and dry the supply air is (the air that makes the actuator operate) however we regularly test these to over 800,000 cycles. Install a basic air filter if you are not sure about the quality of your air, we have pneumatic actuators that have been in operation for decades. The most common failure we see is due to dirty wet air being sent to the actuator.

As this is an ANSI 300 flanged 2 way valve it will need to be fitted between two of the same flanges (ANSI 300 standard) in the pipework. Between the mated flanges will need to be a gasket to ensure a positive seal. The type of gasket will depend upon the media and temperature, for instance a water application may use EPDM or NBR whereas a steam application may use graphite or a spiral wound gasket. The bolts should be fitted and then tightened in a diagonal direction to ensure an even fastening force across the face of the flange (for bolt torque refer to the flange standard). The spring return pneumatic actuator can accommodate a namur solenoid valve which is a very popular configuration (the 5/2 control valve bolts directly onto the actuator with an o-ring face seal on the back of the valve) or just a standalone 5/2 valve. If you are using a stand alone 5/2 or 3/2 valve, the air line will need to be run from here into the ports on the actuator (remember the longer the run the slower the operation unless you use quick exhaust valves near the actuator). If you are running a 3/2 configuration in one port of the actuator only (the spring will do the other part of the operation) then it is recommended a silencer be put into the unused port to help protect it from the surrounding environment.

These two way ANSI 300 flanged spring return ball valves are used in a very wide application range. They are quite often used in corrosive environments as they are 316 Stainless Steel such as areas where there is a caustic washdown. It also carries a fire safe certification so they are quite often used in areas where this is a requirement.  Other applications include water treatment, steam applications to 10 bar, chemical applications and many more. Being spring return they are ideal for fail safe applications where you need a predetermined position (open or closed) to be reached if air is lost.

This depends upon where you are based and the freight method chosen. If the express freight option is selected it is usually next day delivery to metropolitan areas in Australia for under 5kg. If free freight has been selected it will go by road freight which can be anywhere from 1 to 10 days depending upon your location. It usually averages 3 days.

All of our products come standard with a 12 month warranty. The good news is we have very strict quality controls and all valves leave our warehouse tested (full material and testing certificates to API598 are available) and inspected so there are rarely any issues. Also once your valve is in and operating it will most likely continue to do so for a very long time.