Lower Valve Torques Mean Lower Automation Costs

LINUO Soft Seated
Ball Valve

LINUO ball valves are a great overall choice for any automated valve application. Their soft seated valves are extremely reliable for any process service.

The DM Series has an additional “not-too-well-known” advantage for valves 3” and above - their torques are almost half those of competitive valves.

The lower torque is a result of the carefully engineered seat design and the contact made between ball and seal.

Lower torques allow for smaller sized actuators - which saves considerable dollars when building an automated package. When using direct mounting models, and eliminating any mounting hardware, the cost-savings can be very significant.


For very competitive bidding situations on 3” and higher automated assemblies, the LINUO soft seated DM Series is your best choice.

LINUO Control Valves with Leading Brand Rotary Actuators

Leading Brand Linear Actuator
on LINUO control valve.

A power plant in Kansas City inventories a well-know manufacturer's linear actuator.  By standardizing on this actuator, the power plant is able to reduce inventory costs and simplify company-wide inventory control. The downside, they thought, was dependance on the manufacturer's mating control valve.

Once introduced to the benefits of the LINUO control valve, the power plant staff was convinced it was a great alternative. The advantages were obvious - controllability, compactness and construction.  They really wanted to use LINUO, but the mounting issue had to be overcome.

The solution was quite simple. The local distributor, PEC, designed a simple bracket and coupling that tightly integrated valve and actuator. The linear actuator now bolted up neatly up to the LINUO valve and resulted in better control and much lower cost for the total package.

If your plant standardizes on another manufacturer’s actuator, don’t think that prohibits the use of a LINUO control valve. You’ll end up with better control at much lower costs, even taking in to consideration the mounting hardware.

Advantages of Segment Valve Over Linear Globe Valve for Steam

Linear Globe

Traditionally, linear globe valves have been used most often for steam control valves. Here's a few reasons why a segment valve is a better choice.

Segment Valve

Smaller foot print and real estate - A linear valve takes up much more space due to the size of the actuator.  A segment valve uses a rack and pinion actuator which is far more compact.

Cavitation occurs inside the valve body - cavitation is contained the open area within the segment valve body and the destructive forces of cavitation is contained inside the valve - not at the first bend in the pipe line. Therefore, the valve is protecting the piping system and preventing the expense and downtime in removing the  valve and cutting out and re-welding pieces of a pipe structure.

Lower weight - reduces the requirements for pipe supports and consideration of stress on the piping system.

Can assist in plant standardization by using existing inventory - a segment valve can match up to just about any quarter-turn actuator, so facility's existing inventory of quarter-turn actuators can be used. 

Requirement: 10” & 16” Class 900 Butt Weld End, Triple Offset Butterfly Valves, Fail Close at (5) Second Maximum time, Fusible

Linuo HPBV

A Guatemalan power company company needed 10" and 16" critical service, triple offset butterfly valves to operate flawlessly and quickly in the event of fire or loss of air supply.  They chose Linuo high performance butterfly valves for the job.

The Linuo high performance (HP) butterfly valves offer a wide variety options to suit the most challenging applications.  High performance valves offer rugged construction and tight shutoff for applications where a standard butterfly isn’t sufficient.

The triple offset design provides reliable operation through a wider temperature range, higher flow rates, and increased solids content, than a standard butterfly could withstand.

The valves included sophisticated scotch-yoke actuator packages. The customer required a 5 second or less close time, a fusable link for emergency close in the event of fire, a declutchable manual override, and ASME air receiver tanks for "fail mode" that would allow for (2) full operational cycles.

Linuo engineers also included a 3-way fusable link that supplied air to a pilot operated shuttle valve. If the system was exposed to fire, the fusible link will fail, venting the air feed to the pilot causing the shuttle valve to shift and energize the actuator.

The result was a critical service valves that closed in under (3) seconds. Additionally, the high performance butterfly valves were delivered on time and under budget!

Pharmaceutical Company Discovers the Virtue of Linuo

Linuo Segment Control Valve

A pharmaceutical manufacturer in in Cedar Rapids, IA was using was using an internationally known segmented control valve on a 350 deg. F steam line. Unfortunately these valves couldn't stand up to the application and leaked, causing a potentially dangerous situation and expensive downtime.

After reviewing the application, the Linuo sales engineer knew the Linuo segment control valve was a better choice and would stand up to the application without problem. The customer, while open to changing out the valves, was absolutely dead set on using their actuators from the storeroom, and thought this would prevent the change in valve manufacturers.

The Linuo sales engineer didn't flinch however, knowing the Linuo valve would mount up perfectly to these "quad-power" type actuators.

The end user was delighted and confirmed that the Linuo segment control valve will be the "go to valve" from now on.  They were also delighted that Linuo is more competitively priced too.

End Result: Linuo solved the customers problem by providing a better valve, using the customers stocked actuator, with no mounting issues, at a lower price.

Metal Seated Ball Valves

Linuo Metal Seated Ball Valve

The ball in metal seated ball valves has been hardened via plating or heat treatment so that it can sustain the friction imparted by the metal seat. The metal seat is machined to the profile of the ball to give tight shutoff. A metal seat spring, normally made of Inconel, keeps  positive contact between the seat and ball while operating. Precision machining ensures the ball and spring-loaded seats maintain a tight seal for superior shutoff.

Metal seated ball valves can handle much higher temperatures (and still provide tight shutoff) than soft seated valves. Typical working temperatures for metal seated valves are above 600 deg. F. while soft seated valves top out at around 400 deg. F.

A common metal seat material is Stellite, a cobalt-chromium alloy designed for high temperatures and wear resistance.

Metal seated ball valves stand up to high temperatures, pressures and abrasive materials encountered in the oil and gas, chemical, power generation, pulp & paper, food processing, and mining industries.

A variety of special ball and seat materials are available. These include stainless steel, stellite, hard chrome plated steel, tungsten carbide, and chrome carbide. These materials allow the valves to be used in highly abrasive fluids as well as steam.

Knifegate Control Valves

Knifegate with linear pnuematic actuator

A knife gate valve has a metal wedge or gate that "slices" through a process material. The valve is inserted in the piping system directly in the line of flow, or at the discharge end. The valve uses a a linear motion to open and close. In the closed position, the knifegate valve is designed to seat tightly and not allow leakage in either direction. They are designed to minimize pressure drop across the valve when fully open. They are great for slurries and thick, viscous fluids. Knifegate valves are operated via manual hand wheel or with pneumatic or electric actuators.

Although knifegate valves are designed primarily for for on-off service, there are situations and modifications available where they can be used for control (throttling). When used as control valves, the gate is precision machined with a notch or "V" to provide a specific flow characteristic that linearizes the flow through the valve. Without this modification, a standard knifegate disk demonstrates very non-linear flow characteristics and higher disk and seat wear.

Customer Confirms Linuo Top and Bottom Splined Shaft Controls Best

Linuo Segment Control Valve

A well respected, and experienced engineer working in the Ethanol production industry recently confirmed what Linuo knew all along - the Linuo Segment Control Valve has lower hysteresis and tighter control than competitive rotary control valves.

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

Any mechanical connection, no matter how well machined, has very small spaces where pieces fit together. These spaces can be minimized, but not eliminated. In a control valve shaft and disk assembly you have several of these mechanical connections where the tolerances add up and introduce a "deadband" in the movement of the control valve disk in relation to the valve actuator.  Its been "preached" for years, the best method for tight control and low hysteresis for rotary control valves is to eliminate these tolerances using splines machined on the shaft at the actuator connection.

Linuo Segment takes it one step further.  Linuo splines the shaft at the segment itself. Both, top and bottom shafts.  This leaves the top shaft available to match up to virtually any type of actuator.

The splines reduce "slop" or "drag" with the control signal.  Also, the shafts are then pinned to eliminate any excess movement.

Word seems to be getting out. Ethanol plants across the US are seeing better control results using the Linuo Segment and the valve is being specified for more critical applications each day.

The Linuo Segment Control Valve: Great Control and Suitable for Tough Applications

Linuo Segment Control Valve

The Linuo "Segment" Ball Valve combines globe valve control with the efficiency of a rotary ball valve. It provides excellent sealing capability with both metal and soft seats. Machined to a very precise contour, the V-notched ball provides excellent control characteristics for an extensive variety of flow applications.

Knife Gate Valves for Mining Industry

Slurry Knife Gate Valves Pilot Experiment - Chile 2012-2013

Introduction

Chile has the world's largest copper reserves and is also the largest producer and exporter of the metal with 30% of the total world copper production. In Chile, copper represents 38% of its total exports.

Only in 2012, nearly 5.3 million tons of copper were produced.

Chile also participates in other metal mining industries such as iron, gold, silver, molybdenum and others. Chile is also active in the non-metal mining industry with the production of boron, calcium carbonate, sulphates, lithium and others.