How Does A Valve Work With Actuators

Valves are one of those critical inventions that go unnoticed by many. They play an important role in our world by controlling, regulating, guiding and directing the flow of assorted types of liquids, gases, steam or flowing materials such as mill, grain, etc.

Valves are made of steel, iron, steel, bronze or PVC and can handle high temperatures and pressure points. In certain applications, the velocity, which is controlled by the valve, is vital in the success of the system in which it is applied and can be manually controlled or automated. In every industry, there are various types of valves including ball, butterfly, v-port, solenoid, sanitary, knife gate, plug and many more. The following is just a few examples of where valves are critical in a particular application:

sewage/waste water plant, dams that controls a body of water, valves in your vehicle that control gas flow or oil flow to your engine and oil and gas refinery companies.

A valve actuator is the mechanism for opening and closing a valve. Manually operated valves require someone in attendance to adjust them using a direct or geared mechanism attached to the valve stem. Power-operated actuators, using gas pressure, hydraulic pressure or electricity, allow a valve to be adjusted remotely, or allow rapid operation of large valves. Power-operated valve actuators may be the final elements of an automatic control loop which automatically regulates some flow, level or other process. Actuators may be only to open and close the valve, or may allow intermediate positioning; some valve actuators include switches or other ways to remotely indicate the position of the valve.

Oftentimes, an actuator is attached to the Valves to administer pressure control and flow control in applications where it is crucial that the actual value be the same as the set point value. This motor box is operated by pneumatic pressure or an electric current. It then changes this energy into motion which changes or moves the valve positioning in order to keep to the set point that was entered into the actuator by the operator.