Discover the valve type best suited to your industrial requirements and ensure peak performance through regular maintenance.
1. What is a Butterfly Valve?
Butterfly valves open and close rapidly with a mere 90° rotation, offering straightforward operation alongside excellent fluid control characteristics. When fully open, the valve plate's thickness constitutes the sole resistance to the medium flowing through the body, resulting in minimal pressure drop and superior flow regulation. These valves feature either resilient soft seals or metal seals. In elastic soft-seal valves, the seal may be either moulded or vulcanised onto the valve body, or connected to the surrounding disc.
2. What are the types of butterfly valves?
Butterfly valves have various classification dimensions, and can be divided into four core dimensions: sealing form, structural characteristics, working pressure, and working temperature. Different types are suitable for different industrial working conditions. The following are industry common classifications and key characteristic descriptions, which are suitable for OEM valve manufacturing, selection, production, and other scenarios:
A. Classified by structural form
- Concentric Butterfly Valve
- Double Eccentric Butterfly Valve
- Triple Eccentric Butterfly Valve
B. Classified by seal form
- Soft seal butterfly valve
- Seal valve seat non-metallic soft material to non-metallic soft material composition.
- Seal valve seat metal hard material to non-metallic soft material composition.
- Metal hard seal butterfly valve
- Seal vice by metal hard material to metal hard material composition.
C. Classified by the working pressure
- Low pressure butterfly valve (nominal pressure PN <1.6MPa)
- Medium pressure butterfly valve (nominal pressure PN 2.5 – 6.4MPa)
- High pressure butterfly valve (nominal pressure PN 10.0 – 80.0MPa and more)
D. Classified by the working temperature
- Ultra Low temperature butterfly valve (T
- Low temperature butterfly valve (-100℃ < T< -40℃)
- Room temperature butterfly valve (-40℃ < T< 120℃)
- Medium temperature butterfly valve (120℃ < T< 450℃)
- High temperature butterfly valve (T>450 ℃, up to 800 ℃)
3. What are the differences in the connection methods of butterfly valves?
The wafer type butterfly valve is one of the most widely used categories in butterfly valves. Its core feature is that the valve body has no independent flange and has a thin structure. It is directly clamped between two pipeline flanges through bolts, and has the advantages of compact structure, lightweight, and easy installation. It is the mainstream selection for low-pressure and medium temperature industrial conditions and municipal engineering, and also the core conventional product for OEM valve manufacturing.
Lug Type Butterfly Valve is a specialized category of industrial butterfly valves that mediates between clamp type and flange type. Its core feature is that the valve body has lugs (flange ears/bolt ears) at both ends, which are clamped and fixed to the pipeline flange through bolt holes on the lugs. It is an upgraded structure of clamp type butterfly valves, balancing the compactness of clamp type and the ease of disassembly of flange type butterfly valves. It is widely used in chemical, petroleum, water supply and drainage, fire protection and other working conditions that require quick disassembly and maintenance, and single-sided inspection. It is also a conventional model for OEM valve manufacturing.
- Flange Butterfly Valve
Flanged Butterfly Valve is the most widely adaptable, sealed, and structurally stable category of industrial butterfly valves. Its core feature is the integrated integral flange at both ends of the valve body, which is directly connected to the pipeline flange through flange bolts without the need for long pipe bolts to clamp. It completely eliminates the stress limitations of clamp type and lug type bolts and is the core selection for high-pressure, high-temperature, large-diameter, flammable and explosive medium working conditions.
- Grooved Butterfly Valve
Groove Fire Butterfly Valve is a clamp connected butterfly valve designed specifically for fire water supply and drainage systems. It features a groove clamp quick installation structure and is equipped with a fire specific seal and valve body design, meeting the core requirements of quick installation, pressure resistance, explosion-proof, reliable sealing, and flexible opening and closing of fire protection systems. It is the mainstream valve selection for fire sprinkler systems, fire hydrant systems, fire pump rooms, and municipal fire protection pipelines.
4. What are the actuator of the butterfly valve?
The butterfly valve actuator is the core power component that drives the rotation of the butterfly valve disc to achieve on/off/flow regulation. It is used in conjunction with the butterfly valve body and directly determines the operation mode, control accuracy, response speed, and adaptation conditions of the valve. It is a key component of butterfly valve automation and intelligence. Its selection needs to match the diameter, pressure rating, opening and closing torque, and operating requirements (such as explosion-proof, anti-corrosion, and high temperature) of the butterfly valve. The mainstream is divided into two categories: manual actuators and power actuators, among which power actuators include four categories: electric, pneumatic, hydraulic, and gas-liquid/electro-hydraulic linkage.
A. Manual Actuator
Lever: Metal handle, directly rigidly connected to butterfly valve stem, suitable for butterfly valves with low torque, the simplest operation, 90 degree opening and closing angle limit, no deceleration structure, small volume.
Worm Gearbox: Through an internal turbine reduction mechanism, it reduces speed and increases torque, suitable for most manual butterfly valves. Equipped with an opening dial/locking device, customizable waterproof rating.
B. pneumatic actuator: Powered by compressed air, the cylinder piston drives the gear/crank mechanism to convert linear motion into rotational motion, driving the butterfly valve stem to rotate. Its core advantages are fast action, good explosion-proof performance, and simple maintenance. It is the preferred actuator for flammable, explosive, and dusty environments, suitable for working conditions such as petroleum, gas, chemical, and mining.
C. Electric Actuator: Powered by electricity, the deceleration mechanism is driven by a motor to output torque, which drives the butterfly valve stem to rotate. It is the core model of industrial butterfly valve automation control, which can achieve remote control, precise adjustment, intelligent linkage, and adapt to the vast majority of industrial automation working conditions.
D. Hydraulic actuator
E. Electro-hydraulic actuator
As one of the best OEM butterfly valve manufacturers in China, Kaifa Valve has been serving customers around the world, integrating the characteristics of various butterfly valves into our valve design. Our production team has always produced butterfly valves with strict production standards. Our valves comply with international certifications such as ISO9001, CE, WRAS, ACS, etc.
We have valve solutions that meet your needs. Please feel free to contact us for competitive pricing.
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Company Name: Tianjin KEFA Valve Co., Ltd.
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Country: China
Website: https://www.kefa-valves.com/
