A variety of valves are employed in the piping and machinery systems on the ship per the need from the flow pattern from the liquid. All valves utilized on ships hold the basic functionality of money flow in the liquid inside the pipes.

Valves are employed for most machinery systems on ships for controlling and regulating fluid through pipes. Although valves like forged steel check valve are efficiency decreasing device because they reduce the energy from the liquid flow, their use is imperative in applications where limited flow becomes necessary.Therefore, for virtually every aspiring or serving marine engineer, it is rather necessary to learn about construction and dealing of various forms of valves utilized on ships.

In this first article with the series “Types of valves suited for ships”, discover more about one from the most important valves applied to board ships – Gate valve.

Solid Wedge: Solid Wedge Disks are used as a consequence of simple and more affordable design.

Flexible Wedge: A Flexible Wedge gate valve incorporates a disk which has a cut round the perimeter. A shallow cut gives less flexibility. A deeper cut provides more flexibility. Flexible Wedge gate valves will often be used in steam systems. The flexible gate prevents the disc from binding in to the seat if your lines are heated which may cause some distortion inside valve bodies

Split Wedge: Split Wedge gate valves are of ball and socket design. In a split wedge gate valve, both the disk halves have outward resistant to the body seats using a spreader as soon as the disk is fully lowered into its seating position.

The valve flow characteristics of gate valve might cause high velocity of flow that occur for longer duration even though the opening or closing the valve on account of slow movement of wedge or gate. High velocities might cause erosion of seat along with the disc thereby lowering the design life in the valve. This condition is usually referred to as “wire drawing” effect.

Gate valves are given to the solid wedge or disc getting stuck between your seats as a result of differential contraction involving the valve seats as well as the wedge during shutdown of hot temperature piping system. The piping system ought to be reheated to the disc to search smoothly again. This makes the gate valve unsuitable to be used in piping systems be subject to high fluctuations in temperature. However, this challenge can be overcome by employing gate valve with flexible wedges.
Solid wedge gate valves are understanding of thermal expansion loads or bending moments which may cause the wedge or disc to lock between your valve seats or end in improper seating of wedge relating to the seats and leakage over the valve seats.