A ball valve is a valve with a spherical disc,
the part of the valve which controls the flow through it. The
sphere has a hole, or port, through the middle so that when the
port is in line with both ends of the valve, flow will occur. When
the valve is closed, the hole is perpendicular to the ends of the
valve, and flow is blocked. The handle or lever will be inline with
the port position letting you "see" the valve\'s position. The ball
valve, along with the butterfly valve and plug valve, are part of
the family of quarter turn valves. Ball valves are durable
and usually work to achieve perfect shutoff even after years of
disuse. They are therefore an excellent choice for shutoff
applications (and are often preferred to globe valves and gate
valves for this purpose).
Ball valve/strainer combo\'s are used on some timer
controlled condensate drains. Although they are not required
they do allow the service engineer to shut of certain parts of the
compressed air system without having to depressurize the whole
system. Valve inlet is 1/2" MPT and also 1/4" FPT internally
threaded for versatility.
|
 |