Brief Introduction of the Difference between Ball Valve and Butterfly Valve

Sanitary ball valve and sanitary butterfly valve are commonly used valves. In some occasions, they are interchangeable, while in some other working conditions only one of them can be used. The main difference between the two lies in the structure and the mechanism of opening and closing.

Ball valve evolves from plug valve, its opening and closing member is a sphere.

Its characteristics:

1. Low fluid resistance.

2. Complete sealing can be achieved under large pressure and high temperature.

3. Quick opening and closing.

4. Symmetrical valve body can effectively withstand the pipeline pressure and can cope with high pressure working condition.

Butterfly valve’s opening and closing member is disc-shaped.

Its characteristics:

1. Simple structure, small size, easy installation.

2. Small fluid resistance coefficient, quick opening and closing.

3. It can be used in large diameter valve.

4. Different sealing surface can be applied.

Compared with ball valve, butterfly valve has a slightly worse sealing performance. But in large diameter valves, butterfly valve has a unique advantage over ball valve. When used for flow regulation, butterfly valve has a small regulating range, while V-type regulating ball valve has precise regulation. In addition, in high pressure pipelines, ball valve is more advantageous than butterfly valve.