What is a Stainless Steel Ball Valve?
The stainless steel ball valve can be closed tightly with only a 90-degree rotation and a small torque. The completely equal internal cavity of the valve provides a straight flow channel with little resistance for the medium. The ball valve body can be integral or combined. The two most commonly used materials for stainless steel ball valves are 304 and 316.
What is Stainless Steel?
The reason there are so many uses for stainless steel ball valves is that it is a fantastic material. It is tougher than cast iron, ductile iron, brass, and copper when it comes to pressure rating and temperature tolerance. Stainless steel competes with carbon steel on many fronts, but beats it by a mile in corrosion resistance. For this reason, applications for stainless steel ball valves are typically demanding in one or more area (corrosion, temperature, pressure).
Stainless steel is a fantastic material that is difficult to beat, but it does have one major drawback: price. There is a major price jump from iron valves to steel valves, but it is warranted! The price jump is reflected by a jump in quality from one material to another. Stainless steel is the best of the best, with high pressure tolerance, temperature limits, and corrosion resistance.
Not all stainless steel is created equal! There are several grades of stainless steel, the most common being 304 and 316. These numbers represent the chemical makeup of the material, which is composed of at least 50% iron and 10% chromium regardless of grade. Typically, the more chromium in the mix, the higher the corrosion resistance. 304 stainless steel resists corrosion fairly well due to the addition of nickel in the mix. 316 stainless steel is better equipped for harsh environments, though. It has higher levels of nickel and a a substance called molybdenum added to the mix. Both nickel and molybdenum work with the chromium to make the alloy more resistant to chlorides, which are found in marine environments. Ball valves made of 316 stainless steel are some of the most corrosion-resistant you can find.
Applications of Stainless Steel Ball Valves
With the competitiveness of stainless steel overall, it has been gaining popularity in more usual plumbing applications. This is in addition to being used in many Industrial and Commercial applications.
Stainless steel ball valves are used in applications that require excellent corrosion resistance. This might be required for example for salty atmosphere at offshore & marine applications or due to the process fluids such as water or special chemicals.
ZECO is one of the quality stainless steel ball valve manufacturers and suppliers and exports 1/4″-48″ and DN6-DN1200 sizes 304/316 stainless ball valves.
