GOC

About Floating Ball Valves

A Ball Valve is a valve that opens by turning a handle attached to a ball inside the valve. The ball has a hole, or port, through the middle so that when the port is in line with both ends of the Ball Valve, flow will occur. When the Ball Valve is closed, the hole is perpendicular to the ends of the valve, and flow is blocked.

The handle or lever will be inline with the port position letting you "see" the Ball Valve's position. The Ball Valve, along with the butterfly valve and plug valve, are part of the family of quarter turn valves.

Ball valves are durable and usually work to achieve perfect shutoff even after years of disuse. They are therefore an excellent choice for shutoff applications (and are often preferred to globe valves and gate valves for this purpose). Ball valves, globe valves and gate valves do not offer the fine control that may be necessary in throttling applications but are sometimes used for this purpose.

Ball Valves are used extensively in industry because Ball Valves are very versatile, pressures up to 10,000 psi, temperatures up to 200 Deg C. Sizes from 1/4" to 12" are readily available Ball valves are easy to repair, operate manually or by actuators. The body of Ball Valves may be made of metal, plastic or metal with a ceramic center. The ball is often chrome plated to make it more durable.