Valves
A gate valve is a pipeline valve in which the locking or regulating element moves perpendicular to the axis of the flow of the working medium. Gate valves are a very common type of valves. They are widely used on almost any technological and transport pipelines with diameters from 15 to 2000 millimeters in housing and communal services, gas and water supply systems, oil pipelines, energy facilities and many others. The most common control of the gate valve is by means of a handwheel (manually), also gate valves can be equipped with electric actuators, hydraulic actuators and, in rare cases, pneumatic actuators. On manually operated valves of large diameter, as a rule, a gearbox is installed to reduce the opening and closing forces.
By the nature of the movement of the spindle, valves with a retractable or non-retractable (rotating) spindle are distinguished. In the first case, when opening and closing the valve, the spindle performs translational or rotational-translational motion, in the second - only rotational.
The widespread use of valves is due to a number of advantages of these devices, including:
- Comparative simplicity of design;
- Relatively small building length;
- Possibility of application in various operating conditions;
- Small hydraulic resistance.