Small-size valve balls are a type of piping equipment that shuts off or controls the flow in a pipeline by using a hollow sphere and round seats held in a valve body. There are two basic technologies for the design of ball valves, floating ball design and trunnion mounted ball design.
The major components of a ball valve include:
Valve body – A pressure vessel that contains the components needed to control or shut off the flow through a pipe. It is designed to connect two or more sections of pipe or tubing to each other.
Ball – A sphere with a flow path (hole or tunnel) through the center of it and a connection point for a shaft to rotate it.
Seats – Round donut-shaped discs that form a seal between the body and ball.
Stem – A shaft that connects the internal ball to the outside of the valve to facilitate rotation of the ball.
Packing – Flexible seals that fit around the shaft and prevent the media traveling through the valve from escaping externally.
Bonnet – The part of the valve body that houses the stem and packing.
Operator or Actuator – An external device designed to rotate the stem of the valve. This can be a lever, a gear, a motor-operated gear (electric actuator), or a pneumatic/hydraulic actuator.
Floating Ball Design
A floating design ball valve sandwiches the hollow ball between two or more cupped seats that form a tight seal between the body and the ball at the inlet and outlet ports of the valve body.
The floating valve balls are rotated (usually 90 degrees) by a shaft that protrudes outside of the valve body and is connected to some form of operator. For this reason, most ball valves are referred to as quarter-turn valves. This shaft is not rigidly attached to the ball in order for the ball to pivot on the end of the shaft as it rotates on the axis of the ball. This is usually accomplished with a slot on top of the ball, perpendicular to the ball’s flow path. The cupped portion of the seats cradle the ball prevents it from moving down in the valve body.
