How to Manufacture Valves

Have you ever asked yourself how these industrial valves are manufactured? Pipe systems are incomplete without these valves. In creating a pipeline system, safety and service lifespan is the main concern, making it crucial to look for reliable valve manufacturers that can deliver high-quality valves.

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How do manufacturers produce high-functioning valves? You have to know the process to determine whether the manufacturer is truthful in manufacturing their valves. 

Understand the details of valve manufacturing and processing in this article.

Clients Place and Order with their Desired Design.

Although manufacturers have default designs of industrial valves, customers can have a customized design. In situations with a customized one, the client should show their design and communicate with the manufacturer’s team.

Once there is a mutual agreement of the design, the manufacturer begins their manufacturing process.

Procure Raw Materials

Manufacturers start to procure raw materials for the bonnet, body, spool, and stem of the valve. It is important for the manufacturers to procure raw materials. Thus, their quality assurance team ensures the ones they have procured are the best quality.

Manufacturing Process

Most major activities in manufacturing valves happen on this stage. There are 2 common methods of how valves are manufactured:

Method 1: Cast Method

• Body: Pre-shaped design of the body is initially cleaned before its turning process begins. Turning process is the method of removing and cutting excess materials with lathe or turning machine.

The method involves attaching the pre-shaped body to a mount and turning machine. AS the machine rotates at high-speed, a single cutter cuts the body into its specific shape. It also creates holes, grooves, and other components on the body.

Plating metal is added to the different sections of the body to ensure complete and proper sealing. Once done, the body needs polishing. Technicians have to create threads to allow attachment of certain valves to other components or pipes.

• Seat: The same with the body, the seat undergoes the same manufacturing process. It is inside the body and functions as a sealant. Thus, it has to perfectly fit to its attachment. But, if the body only has Teflon, the seat functions as an additional rubber wrap to ensure tight fitness.

• Stem: The process for the stem does need that much of manufacturing. Technicians only have to cut the parts in the right dimensions. 

Method 2: Forged Method

• Cutting and Forging: Materials have to be cut into the required widths and lengths. After which, the materials are initially heated to prepare it for forging.
• Trimming: Excess materials or burr is removed. After the removal proess, the body is flashed to mold into its right valve shape.
• Machining: It enhances the size and shape of the holes, threads, and groves of the valve. The process depends on the design requirements of the client.
• Surface Treatment: The valve undergoes a treatment with acids.

Valve Assembly Phase

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During the valve assembly phase, the technicians attach the valve components, which is often done manually. At this point, the technicians also assign the production numbers and designtain according to the DNI or API regulations on the valve. 

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Take note that the regulations and standards are important on each valve.

Pressure Test

The valves undergo an actual pressure test to check for leakage. In some pressure test, they use air with 6 to 8 bar pressure fills a closed valve for 2 to 24 hours. The timeframe depends on the valve size. If a leak is determined after the timeframe, the valve undergoes a repair. Otherwise, it goes to the next phase.

Meanwhile, other manufacturers use water pressure for testing. If the valve is not leaking as the water volume increases, it passes the test. It means the valve can withstand the increasing pressure. But, if a leak is determined, the valve undergoes a repair.

Every time a valve undergoes a repair, the technicians perform another pressure test.

Inspection and Quality Control

Every manufacturer inspect their products before ship out. Some manufacturers do their inspection in every stage of the manufacturing process. They thoroughly check for leaks and other production errors that may hinder the valves from having a proper function.

You might think the manufacturing of valves is simple just like how it is written here. But, it is a complex endeavor. There are several factors the manufacturer has to consider in each stage.

Now, you might ask how to determine a high-quality valve. Test of time and client reviews are some of the determinants of knowing high-quality valves. If they can serve their purpose for a longer time, it means they are of good quality. Usually, good quality valves can last up to 5 years.

Other than that, look for client reviews about the manufacturer. It says a lot about not only the product but their services as well. If you are looking for a reliable manufacturer or supplier for valves, check out Dombor.

Valves seem like fairly uncomplicated equipment in the machinery industry, right? They simply open and close to start and stop the flow of fluids and other mediums. They must be fairly easy to manufacture, right?

When you take a closer look, you’ll find that every residential and industrial pipeline system would immediately fail without functioning valves, leading to floods, environmental disasters, and collapsing supply chains. Our society and economy truly depend on valves of all types to prevent these catastrophes. For these reasons, manufactured valves undergo rigorous regulation and testing before installation, ensuring they’ll function safely and dependably.

Contrary to what you might think, valve core sealing components have complex requirements to ensure proper performance and longevity. In fact, the valve manufacturing process is complicated and technically sophisticated, especially the stainless steel sanitary valves used in food and drug production lines. There are many obstacles and difficulties to overcome throughout the process of valve manufacturing. If you’re curious about how sanitary valves are made, we’ll break down the sanitary valve manufacturing process into three comprehensible points. 

How are valves manufactured?

1. The complex valve blank manufacturing and inspection process

Valve castings are formed by heating metals to thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, at which point they melt into liquids. The liquid metals are poured into molds, where they cool and take the shape of a specified valve.

Valve cast blanks are structurally complex, thin-walled shell parts. Valve casting blanks are required to have a smooth surface, a clear character casting, and integral density. In order to meet the above requirements, a series of processing measures should be taken during casting, such as the selection of high refractory molding material and the control of sand moisture, the layering during molding to ensure the hardness of the sand, the use of reasonable casting cap systems and strict control of pouring speed and temperature. Due to its high technical requirements, the casting process of the valve blank is far more complicated than that of general castings.

The finished valves are initially inspected for proper size, position accuracy, and appearance. Then, they are inspected more closely for microstructure, mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and non-destructive probing. Even the valve inspection, testing process, and quality assurance steps of manufacturing are rather complicated and exhaustive.

2. Valve Installation on Machine Tools

The structure and shape of the main parts of the valve are very complex. Some parts are thin-walled and slender, with poor rigidity. When they are machined with industrial tools, positioning and clamping can be very difficult, and complicated special fixtures are often needed.

For some sanitary valve parts, the positioning base has low accuracy and high surface roughness. Sometimes even non-machining surface positioning is used. But there are very high requirements for the accuracy and surface roughness of the processed sealing surface, so it’s very hard to ensure the processing quality. Therefore, to meet the processing needs, it is often necessary to increase the accuracy of the positioning base and reduce the surface roughness, or to produce a positioning surface on a non-processing surface, which only increases the complexity of the valve manufacturing process.

3. Complex Mechanical Processing

Due to the wide variety of valve materials, except for various cast iron and carbon steel, the shearing performance of most high strength, corrosion-resistant, and high-hardness materials is very poor, making it difficult to achieve the specified machining accuracy and surface roughness. And there are very high requirements for the geometrical precision and surface roughness of the sealing surface of the valve, so it’s even more difficult to perform mechanical processing on valves. Meanwhile, the poor shearing performance of valve materials causes quite a few new problems for the processing methods, cutting tool materials, excessive shearing, and valve processing equipment.

Conclusion — Essential Valve Manufacturing

Valve manufacturing is not as simple as we thought. There are several complex issues to overcome when building a capable and dependable valve. The high requirements for valve sealing during the manufacturing process ensure that it is not prone to leakage during use. These critical pieces of equipment are truly essential to manufacturing, storing, and transporting a massive number of products across our economy. If you want to learn more about how valves are made, please visit Adamant Valves for more information.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of globe valve manufacturer. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.