Sanitary Three Piece Body Ball Valve

Design

The hygienic tri clamp ball valve is a valve with a spherical disc, the part of the valve which controls the flow through it. The sphere has a hole, or port, through the middle so that when the port is in line with both ends of the valve, flow will occur. A sanitary 3 way ball valve construction is also available. A sanitary ball valve is available in SS 304 and 316.  Ball valves usually come in weld and ferrule ends, but other less used sanitary coupling connections such as SMS Male Part or SMS Liner and Nut ends can be requested.

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Hygienic ball valves have the highest pressure rating among the sanitary valves. The biggest advantage of using sanitary 3 piece ball valves is that they can achieve perfect shutoff even after years of use or disuse. They are preferred as shutoff applications over sanitary butterfly valves, diaphragm valves or seat valves. They do not offer the fine control that may be necessary in throttling applications but are sometimes used for this purpose.

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Method of Operation

Turning the handle turns the valve ball either parallel or perpendicular to the flow to control or shut off flow. The handle or lever will be in line with the port position letting you see the valve’s position. Ball valves can be used in both horizontal and vertical applications.

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Automation

Most sanitary ball valves can be mounted to an actuator and be highly automated. There are different switch packages available which to mount to the actuators.  Double rack and pinion pneumatic actuators are the standard for ball valves, because they are quarter turn valves.

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CIP Cleanability 

The fact that sanitary ball valves are constructed with 304 and 316 stainless steel, have food safety approved seals and have Tri-clamp or tube OD butt weld ends puts them in the sanitary category. However, they cannot be completely cleaned by CIP. Stainless steel ball valves have cavities and crevices behind the ball that gather product. These areas do not get clean during CIP.  To truly clean the valve, you have to dismantle and manually wash it.  Even with newer designs of sanitary three piece ball valves having cavity fillers to help limit product build up on the inside of the valve, it is unavoidable that product will still accumulate around the outside of the ball and orifices

Features

• Highest pressure Sanitary Valve

• Can achieve perfect shut off even after years of disuse

• Can be mounted to most commercial actuators

• When valve is open, no obstruction in valve means no drop in flow pressure 

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• Hard to clean by CIP systems, have to dismantled

• More expensive than butterfly valves

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Size Availability- 0.5" to 4" (if you need a different size, call us to request it)

 

Material Availability- Body in SS 304 or SS 316L, Gaskets in PTFE

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Connection Availability- Weld end, Ferrule End