28
Tube Products International July 2014
products & developments
Industrial ball valves take-off
Valvestock and Pipe Center report that
sales of Conbraco’s Apollo ball valves
have gone from strength to strength
since the company was appointed a
distribution partner just over a year ago.
Valvestock is now an authorised service
centre for the Apollo range of industrial
products, and holds significant stocks
at its new facility in Fareham, UK.
Additional stocks are held centrally by
Pipe Center, and at strategically located
branches near industrial centres across
the UK.
The company says the Apollo range
has been very well received by existing
and new customers, both in the UK and
overseas. There has been particularly
strong take-up among engineering
contractors, skid builders and OEMs,
who are using Apollo products on a
regular basis as one of their preferred
options for ANSI flanged ball valves.
A key area of application is within the
power sector.
The Apollo top entry ball valve is
reportedly being adopted due to a lack
of availability of a suitable high quality
alternative in the market. It has several
major benefits, according to Adrian
Byrne, Apollo ball valve’s UK sales
manager and partner to Valvestock/Pipe
Center: “The first and most obvious
advantage of using the Apollo top
entry ball valve is the ease of in-line
maintenance, which can dramatically
reduce operational down-time and
maintenance costs.
“The main bulk of the valve is in its body,
and this remains in the pipeline for the
duration of the valve’s life. The internals
of the valve are accessed by removing
the bonnet and entering through the
top – hence the name ‘top entry’. This
becomes
extremely
important with weighty,
large bore valves, as
the logistics involved in
removing them from their
line are extensive, costly
and time-consuming.
“The second important
benefit comes into play
when rapid temperature
changes occur within
the piping system.
Standard parallel-seated
floating ball valves are
simply not capable of
dealing with this, as the
seats have no room for
movement. If a valve
is in its closed position
and the temperature
increases very rapidly,
the ball will be the first
thing to expand.
“When this happens, the seats will
extrude if soft (eg PTFE) and shatter if
hard (eg carbon graphite).
“Both cases can result in catastrophic
seat damage and an unserviceable
valve.
“Alternatively, if a valve is in its closed
position, and the temperature decreases
very rapidly, then the ball will be the first
thing to contract. When this happens,
the ball and seats are no longer creating
a tight seal, and through-leakage will
result. In most cases, the ball will
actually drop lower into the cavity, and
when temperatures return to normal,
the ball will become trapped and seat
damage will again occur.
“The special ‘V’ seating design of Apollo
top entry ball valves introduced the self-
adjusting seat to the floating ball valve.
This design does not rely on the built-
in interference of conventional floating
ball valves, as it provides automatic
compensation for pressure, temperature
and wear. As these changes occur,
the ball and seats continuously move
up and down into the ‘V’, resulting in
positive leak-tight shutoff when using
resilient seats.”
Apollo top entry ball valves have an
‘anti-static’ feature as standard, and all
valve configurations feature blow-out
proof stems.
Pipe Center
– UK
Valvestock
– UK
A 12" class 300 TEV valve
used on a PTA plant in
the USA
Class 600 top
entry flanged
Apollo ball valve
