What is a butterfly valve?
Butterfly valve is a valve that uses a circular butterfly disc as the opening and closing part and rotates with the valve stem to open, close and adjust the fluid. There are many types of butterfly valves with a wide application, and they are also the valves commonly seen on pipelines.
Types of butterfly valves
- ·Wafer-Type Butterfly Valve
- Designed to fit between two pipe flanges without its own flanges, held in place by bolts.
- Compact and lightweight, commonly used in HVAC, water treatment, and general industrial applications.
- Lug-Type Butterfly Valve
- Features threaded lugs on the valve body, allowing it to be bolted to one flange, enabling removal of one side of the piping without disturbing the other.
- Used in applications requiring easy maintenance, like water distribution and chemical processing.
- Flanged Butterfly Valve
- Has flanges on both ends of the valve body, directly bolted to matching pipe flanges.
- Common in large-diameter pipelines, such as oil and gas or power generation systems.
- Double Offset (High-Performance) Butterfly Valve
- The disc is offset from the centerline of the valve body and the shaft, reducing seat wear and improving sealing.
- Suitable for high-pressure and high-temperature applications, like oil, gas, and chemical industries.
- Triple Offset Butterfly Valve
- Features a third offset where the disc’s sealing surface is angled, ensuring a metal-to-metal seal with zero leakage.
- Used in critical applications like petrochemical, power plants, and cryogenic systems.
- Rubber-Lined Butterfly Valve
- The valve body or disc is lined with rubber or elastomers to prevent corrosion and handle abrasive or corrosive fluids.
- Widely used in chemical processing, mining, and slurry applications.
- Cryogenic Butterfly Valve
- Built to operate in extremely low temperatures, using specialized materials and seals.
- Used in LNG (liquefied natural gas) and other cryogenic applications
