All About Ball Valve Failure: Common Failures and Causes

08-10-21

ball valve failure

While the likelihood of gas leaks ending in a massive fireball is lower than you might think, ensuring nothing escapes the valves at your factory is essential for ensuring worker safety and bringing in maximum profit. For many companies, this takes the form of securing airtight ball valves to keep everything in.

That said, no valve is perfect. So how do you stay on top of any potential ball valve failure?

Well, that’s where we come in. With this guide to the most common types, causes, and resulting issues of ball valve failure, you’ll know how to tackle any ball valve-related problem.

But enough preamble, right? Let’s get into things.

Common Ball Valve Failures

One of the most common types of ball valve failures involves a buildup of dirt and sediment within the valve, making it difficult to open and close. The use of solvent cement glue can also clog up the ball, causing it to stick to the inside of the valve and resist turning. If this happens, you’ll want to take the valve apart and clean out any grime you see.

Another frequent ball valve failure occurs when the elastic used to seal the valve (often in the form of an O-ring) gets worn down over time due to liquid or gas getting pushed through it. Since this is a natural symptom of use, you’ll want to swap out the elastic when you notice cracks or leakage. Turning down the intensity of liquid flowing through the valve can also help extend the lifespan of the O-ring.

As the elastic starts to go, so too does the inner packing of the valve stem. Any scratching or damage to the valve stem requires someone to either replace the stem or the whole valve before the whole thing falls apart.

Make sure to look for leak points at the nuts holding the bolts in as well. This indicates that the nuts are too loose or that the end connector needs realignment. Damage to O-rings around the nuts can also prove a culprit of these leaks.

The Issues Keep On Coming

Issues also arise when the actuator starts to fail, as this piece helps control the flow of liquid/gas through the valve. Picking the right actuator for the job is important here, as different actuators are built to handle different speeds at which the liquid or gas travels through the pipe.

For electrical actuators, you’ll also want to make sure the flow of voltage to the actuator isn’t too high. Otherwise, your risk of overheating and electrical fire increases.

While every ball valve wears down over time due to use, it’s also important to note that valve leaks can occur due to using a valve after a period of inactivity. This causes lockage within the valve (usually from the ball or valve seat), requiring you to stop work and take the ball valve apart to get the pieces working again.

To avoid these problems, the best solution is to figure out the average life expectancy of your ball valves based on what solution goes through them and how much stress they endure.  That way, you know roughly when to swap them out without getting caught off-guard.

The Additional Causes of Valve Failure

A frequent cause of ball valve issues comes from people either installing incorrect parts with the ball valve or installing the valve improperly. For example, you need to look at different valve seats to determine which ones will stand up to the specific combination of pressure and temperature you place on it. Valves with high amounts of PTFE don’t withstand cold flow well, making them poor choices for ball valves transporting something like liquid nitrogen.

You also don’t want the valve seats too tight. If this happens, it builds up a lot of heat against the ball through friction, wearing the valve down faster. Should the seat get crushed, grind and scrape it back to full strength and make sure the bolts fastening the seat in are tight enough.

You should also take careful stock of ball valves after they are disconnected and transported somewhere. It’s easy for pieces to get jostled or snapped while moving from place to place, and you’ll want to catch those breaks before you slap the valve back on.

Finally, when you inspect the ball valve for issues, make sure you really inspect it. Many companies suffered nasty breaks down the line because their inspections were surface-level or only focused on one or two parts of the valve.

The Problems With Ball Valve Failure

Spotting and preventing ball valve failure is all well and good, but what’s the point? Well, when a ball valve breaks, whatever liquid or gas was inside leaks out into the building. Best-case scenario, production stalls for a while while you fix the leak. This costs you precious time and money you could have spent turning a profit as your employees twiddle their thumbs, waiting for the break to fix to get back to work.

Worst-case scenario, you’re transporting a dangerous substance like carbon monoxide and risk poisoning and/or threatening the lives of every worker in there. If this happened due to negligence in your inspection or maintenance of the ball valves, your company becomes liable for a whole bunch of lawsuits on top of that.

To avoid this, feel free to come to check out our line of top-quality valve products. Here at Everlasting Valve Company, we’ll swap your ball valves out for high-class process or diverter valves, which hold longer lifespans than ball valves and have more consistent performance. In the long run, you’ll save more money making the switch than you would be sticking with ball valves.

Keeping Things Flowing

And there you have it! Now that you know all about the common causes and types of ball valve failure, you’re ready to keep your company pipes running without a hitch! And if you’re looking to improve your valve process even further, make sure to contact us folks here at Everlasting Valve Company and let us know how we can help!

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