7 Types of Stainless Steel Valves Every Engineer Must Know

Stainless steel has excellent corrosion resistance and the mechanical properties of the iron-chromium alloy are known for superior strengths and physical properties. No wonder stainless steel pipe fittings and ball valves are used across multiple industries. Here are 10 types of steel valves that every engineer should know about.

• 1.    Gate Valve: Used very commonly in the petroleum industry, a gate valve is a rectangular or circular slice type structure that slides down a fluid carrying channel to reduce flow or cut it completely.
• 2.    Piston Valve: Piston valves, as the name suggests contains a piston which slides up and down a cylindrical structure to reduce or completely cut down the supply of fluid. This type of valve found significant use in steam engines and pneumatic cannons.
• 3.    Floating Ball Valve: This type of valve has a floating ball that is pivoted with the help of an external level which places the ball in the path of fluid flow. The pivot angle can be changed to open the flow or stop it completely. One common issue of the floating ball valve is that in winter it traps water and freezes. Expansion adds pressure and cracks the fluid channel.
• 4.    Dual Plate Valve: Dual plate valves are also known as wafer valves because of two plates in the valve. This works mostly like gate valves but has better efficiency in low pressure situations. Wafer valves are very popular in piping engineers across refineries, water treatment facilities and paper factories.
• 5.    Butterfly Concentric Valve: Similar in operation to floating ball valve, the only difference here is that instead of a ball, there are circular discs, which is either perpendicular to the fluid flow (closed position) or parallel to fluid flow (open position). An external lever operates the valve.
• 6.    Swing Valve: A swing valve is a butterfly-style check valve in which the disc, the movable part to block the flow, swings on a hinge or trunnion, either onto the seat to block reverse flow or off the seat to allow forward flow.
• 7.    Actuators: Actuators are no truly valves; these are more of switches that turn the valves on or off. These are extensively used in steel pipe fittings everywhere.
• 8.    Needle Valve: This is a type of valve having a small port and a needle-shaped plunger which gives its unique name. Needle valves provision precise control over flow, but the downside of using needle valves is that it is only capable of relatively low flow rates.

These are some of the most common valve types that every engineer must know.

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