Which One is Better ? Gate valves or Ball valves?

July 5th 2022

Valves are used to control the flow of gases, liquids and particulate solids. They come in many types, sizes, materials, pressures, temperature classes, and drive modes. Gate valve and ball valve are two distinct members of the valve family, which are generally used for two different types of flow control.

About Gate Valves

Which One is Better ? Gate valves or Ball valves?

The gate valve has a flat closing element that slides in the medium flow to open or close the valve. In the bronze valve body often used in commercial and residence applications, the bronze disc moves up and down to open and close the valve. The valve is designed to keep the brass stem at the same height relative to the movement of the disc. A Teflon packing is used in the threaded cap to prevent leakage around the valve stem. The manual valve is driven by turning the cast iron hand wheel (a ball valve butterfly handle or a ball valve blue handle).

About Ball Valves

The ball valve has a spherical closing element, round or other shaped hole. Align the hole with the flow, open the valve, and close the solid flow outside the ball. The ball is located on the valve seat, and the valve rod is inserted into the top of the ball. The packing and gasket anti port gate valve around the valve stem has two ports, one inlet and one outlet. The above gate valves have threaded ends, and welding and flange connections are available.

Advantages of Ball Valves

1.The thrust bearing reduces the friction torque of the valve rod, which can make the long-term operation of the valve rod stable and flexible.

2.Anti static function: a spring is set between the ball, valve rod and valve body, which can export the static electricity generated during the switching process.

3.The fluid resistance is small, and the pneumatic ball valve is the one with the smallest fluid resistance among all valve classifications. Even the reduced diameter pneumatic ball valve has a relatively small fluid resistance.

4.The valve rod seal is reliable. Because the valve rod only rotates without lifting, the packing seal of the valve rod is not easy to be damaged, and the sealing capacity increases with the increase of medium pressure.

5.Because the main valve seat sealing ring material of the ball valve is Teflon, which is inert to almost all chemicals, and has the comprehensive characteristics of small friction coefficient, stable performance, not easy to aging, wide temperature application range and excellent sealing performance.

Advantages of Gate Valves

1.The flow resistance is small, the medium channel inside the valve body is straight, the medium flows in a straight line, and the flow resistance is small.

2.Compared with the stop valve, it is labor-saving when opening and closing, because whether it is open or closed, the movement direction of the ram is perpendicular to the medium flow direction.

3.The height is large, the opening and closing time is long, the opening and closing stroke of the ram is large, and the lifting and lowering is carried out through the screw.

4.Water hammer is not easy to occur because of the long closing time.

5.The medium can flow in any direction on both sides, which is easy to install. Both sides of the gate valve channel are symmetrical.