Butterfly Valves

[LACHANDARA]

Hi,
Valves would not really be my area, so was wondering if butterfly valves can be used for powder materials, the powder used is similar to plaster paris will be used to make molds, proposing to use an 8 inch butterly valve on a vertical pipe, powder gets weighed into the pipe then released into a mixing tank. A butterfly valve will fit in easier than a knife gate valve on this machine, I know a small ammount of powder may sit on the disc of the butterfly valve but this is not critical,
my main question is will the BFV wear either the rubber seal or the disc or are there BFV's available suitable for powders?


Any information, greatly appreciated

 

[gerhardl]

Most likely you will have more problems with a standard butterfly valve than with a standard knifegate valve. Powder (even with your description) may however vary very much in behaviour depending on surroundings (humidity, consistence, previous deposits building further on, materials in pipeline and valve, temperature, cleaning methode and medium, detailed layout, actual production rate/use start and stops, etc. etc.)

There exists a number of companies specializing in valves for powder transport, with solutions on the market varying from simpel knifegate solutions up to ceramic excentric 'part of ball shell' solutions with a number of variations also for butterfly solutions.

Increase in price of solution will often be proportional to longer standtime.

I recommend that you try to estimate your cost for downtime and installment of new valve and repair together with discussion of actual solution with an experienced supplier with references to similar powder handling.