A reliable multi service valve?

Steve,
It looks like you've got a tough service here. You've asked about finding a robust ball valve but will you consider the metal-seated triple-eccentric high performance butterfly valve? The metal seat will help if you've got scale and for high temperatures (steam). If your cross contamination is serious, I'd think about redundant valves, which will also allow you to keep the system running with fewer shutdowns. Finally, before you buy your valves, have the manufacturers meet a qualification test that simulates your actual conditions (on an accelerated basis of course).

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J. Alton Cox
President
DeLuca Test Equipment

Thank you for your responses, you have both given me some excellent information there.

Regards

Steve.

You may want to look into an ORBIT ball Valve... capable of
Frequent cycling, none-Friction-seating, Tight Shut-off, metal seated\avaliable...

Steve:

Ouch... This is a tough service. I would also recommend the triple offset metal seated BFV, as recommended by RXH above. However, 3" size is a bit small for this type of valve, and even though some manufacturers (Tomoe) make them all the way down to 2", 3" is probably the smallest you can buy and still hope to have a decent CV to keep the system flowing. Small ball valves have typically much more flow capacity than small butterfly valves, so you definitely have to a) compare the CVs of your current ball valve versus the CV of the triple offset BFV replacement, and b) get your supplier to provide a test valve (on delayed purchase bases) and try it before you make a commitment to switch.
Good Luck!

About metal-seated triple-eccentric butterfly valves, see also Thread408-64692 in this Forum...

Thank you all for your interest and time on this topic. I'm a Machinery guy really, so this input is invaluable to me. I'm not sure about a Butterfly valve. A major feature of the softseat ball valve failures is scoring of the seat caused by embedded debris in the soft seat. I'm not so sure how a butterfly valve will cope with this and remain a tight shut off. From what I've heard here and the research I've done, I'm tempted to look for a hardened ball and sintered metal seats (bi-directional). I figure that there's a fair bit of business here for somebody so I'm guessing I can put some valves in on a delayed payment basis, 25% every 6 months for two years. I'd be happy with two years between maintenance change outs. I intend to "group" the valves into sets within Maximo to schedule the changeouts when we have 26 monthly vessel inspections. Thanks again for your help, it's appreciated.

Regards

Steve.

Steve,

I would suggest that you seriously take a look at a metal seated ball valve. The hardened trim will offer you the best life expectancy and truly help reduce your maintenance costs. Don't be scared away by the price increase. You will probably find that a quality metal seated valve will be 3 to 5 times the cost of a soft seated valve. However, when you factor in the reduced maintenance and downtime, the economics of a high performance ball valve, begin to make sense.

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Speak to Chris and I am sure that they will be able to offer you a practical solution for your process needs.