A three piece two way spring return stainless steel ball valve is constructed of three seperate body pieces and held together by the use of stainless steel tie rods with nuts at either end. It has a direct mounted anodised aluminium spring return rack and pinion actuator fixed to the valve which conducts its 90 degree turn (open.close). This kind of ball valve design makes it easy to remove from the line as you do not need to unscrew its ends from the pipework to maintain the valve. It is also very easy to change the valve seats as you can access them directly when the ends are removed making them ideal for applications where the seat is worn regularly. 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 a 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 if required. The actuator has a namur interface and position indicator.

The 3 piece 2 way spring return 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 return 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 (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). A 3/2 valve could be used instead which will operate one side of the pistons and rely on the spring to operate the other however we recommend a 5/2 to ensure clean air is only entering the actuator. If a 3/2 is used we would recommend a silencer is put into the unused port to help protect the actuator. Extras such as limit switch boxes and positioners can also be mounted directly to 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. Being a 3 piece construction it is relatively easy to change the seats out when there is wear which is the main perishable in the valve. These are available as spare parts in a repair kit. 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 been sent to the actuator.

These have female parallel BSP threaded ends so it is best to put a male tapered BSP fitting into the valve ends. Thread tape or a sealant should be used to help the seal and also if dissimilar metals are used it will reduce dissimilar metal corrosion. The tie rods can be undone if needed and the ends installed by themselves but this is usually unnecessary and you would have to measure the exact face to face before your installation. 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 stand alone 5/2 valve. If you are using a stand alone 5/2 or 3/2 valve the air lines will need to be run from here into the ports/port on the actuator (remember the longer the run the slower the operation unless you use quick exhaust valves near the actuator).

These three piece two way ball valves are used on a wide variety of applications. Being three piece they are a higher price than an ordinary two piece ball valve but possess many advantages. This means they are usually used in higher spec applications usually in industry. This includes water treatment, steam applications to 10 bar, chemical applications and many more. As they are spring return they are usually used in fail safe applications where you would like the ball valve to return to a predetermined positon (either open or close) 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.