Your Dependable 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve Provides the Best Solution

Kinvalve 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve can Handle your Tough Industrial Demands!

The need for a dependable three-way ball valve stainless steel is on the rise with many industries requiring this for various kinds of processing applications.

Whether there is a need for your industry to utilize gas or even corrosive substances you can rely on Kinvalve 3 way ss ball valve.

Our stainless steel three-way ball valve is quality made in a production facility that incorporates the highest standards in manufacturing ensuring you of your money’s worth.

With design expertise in stainless ball valves, Kinvalve 3 way stainless steel ball valve is made from high-quality materials that can withstand the rigid demands of your industry.

Our stainless steel three-way ball valve comes in L-Port and T-Port flow patterns allowing you multiple functions in your piping requirements.

Unique design features ensure a steady flow of various mediums. Kinvalve stainless 3-way ball valve is quality engineered and is multi-functional.

It can be set up in different configurations where you need to divert, combine, alternate flows in your processing system. Each port has a separated seat seal allowing easy setup provisions for an inlet and/or block a flow.

This is made possible with smart feature options of either Bolted or Screwed-In end connections that can conveniently adhere to your configuration needs.

Each Kinvalve 3-way stainless ball valve is installed with a Blow-Out Proof Stem that is mounted at the bottom. With this design feature, you can be sure that the inner chamber of the valve body can withstand high pressure preventing unexpected incidents of damage or accident.

Designed with a double O-ring stem packing with an available ISO5211 pad. This will ensure safety in your work site.

If you employ a fully automated system, the Kinvalve stainless steel 3-way ball valve can be fitted with an actuator directly installed in your pipe systems.

The live load stem packing together with blowout proof stem provides a bubble tightness making this 3-way ss ball valve reliable in your mixing and diverting flow applications which can give you a long service life.

Kinvalve is dedicated to providing you with simplified piping solutions that could meet your industry’s standards.

Made from durable stainless steel, it can handle working pressure of up to 1000 PSI and with temperature ratings of -45.5C (-50F) to 246C (475F).

Our 3-way stainless ball valve is efficient in controlling flows in whatever configuration set-up you will need.

A stainless steel three-way ball valve is an integral part of your piping system and it is only wise to invest in quality valves for your industry.

Kinvalve has been manufacturing high-quality valves for over decades and constantly innovates to meet the world-class standards for the global market.

Having our own manufacturing plant, Kinvalve is capable of providing you with a full range of 3-way ball valves with customized design specifications suitable to your project requirements.

With our expertise and availability of our 3-way stainless steel ball valve quality products, you can rely on our stock availability, competitive pricing, and shorter delivery time.

We value our customers, and your industry comes first.

Kinvalve is here to provide you with high-quality stainless 3-way ball valve that is functional, affordable, and durable with dedicated customer service.

Looking forward to serving you very soon!

3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve: The Ultimate FAQ Guide

This FAQ guide possesses almost all the information that one needs to know about a 3-way Stainless Steel Ball Valve.

Here, you will find responses to several queries you might have about the 3-way Stainless Steel Ball.

Have a look!

What is a 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve?

A 3-way stainless steel ball valve is alike a normal valve, it is called a diverter valve.

It has 3 opening or ports, one of the three ports is mutual to the two other ports. The common port is an inlet and the other two are the outlets.

This valve can be utilized as a valve having two inlets and one outlet. Three-way ball valves provide shut-off as well as directional control.

It very well may be utilized to control the progression of fluid and gas.

There are two types of three-way valves according to the flow direction. The most popular valves are

1. L-Flow Pattern Valve
2. T-Flow Pattern Valve

The L-flow pattern is used to alter the course of the stream from one outlet onto the next. These valves are often known as diverter valves.

T-Flow Pattern is used to take two inlets stream and consolidate them to stream out through one mutual outlet port. These valves are also known as a 180-degree ball valve.

T-Flow Pattern valves can furthermore be utilized as L-Flow Pattern valves by the quarter-turn of the handle.

It is perhaps the most widely recognized multi-port ball valves available in the market.

Figure 1: 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve

What does a 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve do?

A 3-way stainless steel ball valve works by giving running fluid different paths to go through.

It works by either giving one in-stream and two out-streams or two in-streams and one out-streams.

It is utilized to regulate gas and fluid flow. For example, if there is a need to change the direction of oil from a tank to another. It is suggested to utilize a three-way ball valve.

It can mix the fluid coming in from two different pipes into one pipe, as well as, divide the fluid coming in from one pipe into two pipes.

L-Pattern valve is used to divide the flow while the T-Pattern valve is used to mix the fluid coming from two different pipes.

How does the L-Flow Pattern Work in a 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve?

As 3-way stainless steel ball valves possess one common port, L flow patterns can occur easily.

L flow pattern allows flow from out of the mutual inlet port into one of two different out-stream ports. It is used where the direction of the flow needs to be diverted.

These are generally installed with the lowest part of the valve body as the stream entrance port. L-Pattern flow ball valves have levers that can turn up to 90 are known as two-position valves.

The direction of the flow can be changed from left to right with a 90-degree turn of the handle.

Figure 2: L shape flow in 3-Way Ball Valve

What is the Advantage of the Blowout Proof Stem in the 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve?

Blow-out-proof stem in the 3-way stainless steel ball valve adds safety to the valve. This method helps the valve to bear more pressure during the flow and helps the valve to sustain.

The stem is inserted from within the valve with an integral T-Type shoulder to prevent it from blowing out.

The o-rings & packing rings are compressed and held in position by the gland flange, which is bolted to the stem holding.

This technique of inserting stem from inside the valve, and having it compressed by gland flange and stem holding, prevents the stem from being pushed out by the pressure from the valve inside.

It assures that the stem is sealed safely.

Figure 3: Blow-out-Proof Stem Design

What Sizes are Available for 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valves?

The size of a valve is measured from the diameter of the inlets and the outlets. The sizes available for 3-way stainless steel ball valves are from ½ inches to 4 inches.

What is the Operating Temperature Range of a 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve?

The operating temperature range of a 3-way stainless steel ball valve depends on the construction material.

The Maximum Temperature for different seat materials is as follows:
1.Carbon filled PTFE Seats: 260°C
2.PEEK Seats: 270°C
3.FILLTITE Seats: 300°C
4.Virgin PTFE Seats: 200°C
5.Hypatite PTFE Seats: 260°C
6.Nylon with MoS2 Seats: 140°C
7.Glass Fibre filled PTFE with MoS2 Seats: 230°C
8.Graphite Seats: 500°C

What Type of Seat does the 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve Possess?

Adhering to standards, 3-way stainless steel ball valve possesses PTFE.

Although the material of the seat can be changed according to your preference.

It can have the following types of seats:
1.Carbon filled PTFE Seats:
Carbon-filled PTFE seats have excellent compressive strength, wear, and chemical resistance. It provides good thermal conductivity and permeability.
This is an ideal material for sealing applications.

2.PEEK Seats
PEEK has excellent wear resistance & corrosion resistance. It’s a good material for chemical resistance.
Its property of being non-toxic expands the range of applications. It can maintain good performance under high pressure, temperature, and humidity.
It can be used as high pressure and high-temperature valves. Suitable for nuclear-related applications.

3.UHMW Polyethylene Seats
These seats are used for the valves are used near radioactive materials. These are also recommended to be used in the tobacco industry and highly recommend to be used for handling highly abrasive media.

4.Virgin PTFE Seats
These materials have a very low coefficient of friction and excellent chemical resistance and electrical insulation. But will easily deform under high pressures.

5.Graphite Seats
Graphite seated valves are suitable for high-temperature liquid applications.
Such valves are ideal for high flow applications like heat transfer fluid service and temperature swing applications.

How Many Driving Methods does the 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve Have?

To operate the 3-way stainless steel ball valve, a ball inside the housing of the valve need to rotate. To rotate this ball different mechanisms are available, which include moving it with the help of a manual handle, through a motor, and through some pressure.

The details of these mechanisms are as below:

• Lever Handle: A lever handle can be used to turn the valve on or off manually. Lever only needs to turn to 90 degrees. Flow depends on whether the ball is in L shape or T shape.

Figure 4: Lever Handle of 3-way Stainless Steel Ball Valve

• Electric Actuated: Electric actuated valves have two parts, a ball valve, and a servo motor. The ball can be turned between different circuits using a servo motor. Movement depends on whether it is an L-port ball valve or a T-port ball valve.

Figure 5: 3-way Stainless Steel Electric Ball Valve

• Pneumatic Actuated: A pneumatic 3-way ball valve has two parts, a pneumatic actuator, and the ball valve. It needs compressed air in order to operate. It can be single-acting or double-acting. Movement depends on whether it is an L-port ball valve or a T-port ball valve.

Figure 6: 3-way Stainless Steel Pneumatic Ball Valve

What does the Direct Mount Actuator do in a 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve?

Actuators are directly mounted on a 3-way stainless steel ball valve. It helps in building a solid assemblage for tight spaces and helps to eliminate the valve-actuator mounting kits.

Electric Actuator:

Electric actuators include servo, stepper, or simple DC motors.

Indirectly mounted valves, manual handles are replaced with electric motors with some positioning mechanism. The servo and stepper motors have a built-in position detector mechanism.

The servo-based actuators utilize the information of the encoder to know its position while the stepper motor counts its number of steps to estimate its current position.

In electric actuated valves, the control board is the brain of the valve. It receives the signals of opening and closing the valve.

Pneumatic Actuator:

The valves operated by pneumatic actuators have an assembly of spring, diaphragm, adjusting screw, and stem.

The adjusting screw applies pre-load on the spring to engage the valve in its failure position. Without the pneumatic signal on the diaphragm, the valve remains in this position.

The diaphragm holds the air coming as a pneumatic signal to adjust the spot of the spring to open or close the valve.

Hydraulic Actuator:

These work just like the hydraulic actuators but instead of the diaphragm, it has a piston to move.

The pressure is inserted by some liquid to move the piston and open or close the valve.

How is the Mounting Pad Used for in 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve?

A mounting pad is used to directly mount gearbox or actuators on a 3-way stainless steel ball valve. As a result, no extra equipment, be it couplers or brackets, is used.

With the help of a mounting pad, there is less chance of corrosion.

ISO 5211 allows the direct mounting of actuators or gearbox on the mounting pad.

What is the Best Way to Clean a 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve?

A brush and a cleaning agent are used to clean a 3-way stainless steel ball valve. PBW cleaner is one of the most widely used cleaners available.

Mix the cleaner with water and soak your disassembled valve in it.

Now use a brush to get rid of any particles on it.

Wash it all off and assemble the valve back again.

How is a 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve Useful for Homebrew?

A 3-way Stainless steel ball valve is useful for homebrew as it does not corrode easily.

Using a 3-way stainless steel ball valve will not require a lot of maintenance.

The 1/2″ Stainless Steel Ball Valve is particularly very famous for brewing. It is so widely used that now it is even referred to as brewing ball valves.

How to Use a 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve for Potable Water?

A 3-way Stainless steel ball valve is ideal for potable water.

As its functions as a diverter or mixing valve, it allows full pressure at any port.

It is ideal for a lead-free and NSF-approved construction.

Does the 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve Have a “Full Port” Design?

Yes, 3-way stainless steel ball valves have a full port design.

The In-stream port and out-stream port of 3-way stainless steel ball valves have an equal diameter as the interior of the ball valve.

This makes the design of a 3-way stainless steel ball valve a full port design.

Figure 7: Standard Port and Full Port Designs

How do the 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve Designs Prevent Leakage?

The outer leakage from the valve stem part is stopped by the carefully designed double sealing O-ring and with the usage of a Graphite gland packing ring. The leakage of the valve body is prevented through the flexible graphite gaskets. The tight shut-off sealing mechanism helps to prevent leakage.

The seals that surround the valve are secured and placed in a way that does not allow leakage. But if the seal breaks, leakage might occur.

What is the Difference Between T-flow and L-flow in a 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve?

In L-flow, the ball valve has two openings. These openings make an angle of 90 degrees and meet in the middle of a 3-way stainless steel ball valve. L-flow ball valves are also called diverting valves or diverters.

T-flow is somewhat similar to L-flow. The major difference between L-flow and T-flow is one of those openings in T-flow is drilled completely. Due to this drilling, the flow makes a “T” because of their openings. T-flow ball valves are also called mixing valves or mixers.

Figure 8: T-Flow and L-Flow of 3-way Stainless Steel Ball Valve

How to Choose a Suitable 3 Way Stainless Steel Ball Valve for your Application?

There are numerous variables that need to be considered before the selection of the valve. These variables are:

• The temperature of the media flowing through
• Inlet & Outlet’s size
• Working Pressure
• The material of Seal
• Connection Types

Temperature:

The operating temperature range of a 3-way stainless steel ball valve depends on the material used for the valve.

The material used in a valve varies from application to application of use. For example, the seal and stem material are the most important component to be considered while considering the valve selection.

This is also important to consider the material of which the body of the valve is made. If the fluid going via the valve has a very high temperature and the selection is not being made properly, this can damage the valve badly.

So, for the sake of the easiness of clients, below are a few guidelines for the selection of the right valve according to the temperature.

The Maximum Temperature for different seat materials is as follows:

1. Carbon filled PTFE Seats:

These seats are suitable for the application where 260°C and extra mechanical strength are required. Most suitable for high-pressure applications.

This material has tensile strength is 13 – 18 MPa. This material is good electrically conductive so should be carefully used.

2. PEEK Seats:

PEEK seats can bear temperatures up to 270°C. It offers excellent water resistance and is unaffected due to the constant exposure to warm water or steam. Most suitable for hot water or steam-related applications.

3. FILLTITE Seats:

FILLTITE Seats are used at a high temperature which can be as high as 300°C. It can also be used for high-temperature applications.

4. Virgin PTFE Seats:

Virgin PTFE is widely known for its chemical resistance, thermal stability, electrical insulation. Can bear the temperature up to 200°C. It is most suitable for applications where electrical insulation is required.

5. Hypatia PTFE Seats:

Hypatia PTFE seats can be used at 260°C and have excellent resistance to creep or compression. Hypatite seats are highly chemically resistant and are recommended to be used as a wide range of chemicals as PTFE.

6. Nylon with MoS2 Seats:

The temperature range of Nylon with MoS2 is from -40°C to 140°C and has the property of lower water absorption. These are most suitable for Gas related applications.

7. Graphite Seats:

The seats of this material have a high-temperature range up to 500°C. Such material is recommended to be used for high-temperature applications. Carbon-graphite works best in clean liquids with some lubricating properties.

Inlet & Outlet’s size:

Ball valves are further categorized as per the sizes of the Inlets and Outlets. The inlets and outlets are measured in inches.

The diameter of the Inlets and Outlets are available in different sizes. Small size to maximum sizes of the Inlets & Outlets is available. Different sizes between ½” to 4” are available.

The valve of size ½” to 3” goes to the sideways entry ball valve, 4” belongs to the top entry ball valve. 

Working Pressure:

Flow’s pressure is important to be considered. Different kinds of valves are designed with different types of material as per the pressure handling capability.

If the working pressure of the flowing matter is higher than the handling capability of the valve, damage can occur to the valve and the joints.

This negligence further resulted in the leaks. Kinvalve provides the valve having pressure handling capability of up to 1000PSI.

The Material of Seat:

The material of the seat changes as per the requirement. Following are the details of the seats available in different materials:

1. Carbon filled PTFE Seats:

Carbon-filled PTFE seats have excellent compressive strength, wear, and chemical resistance. It provides good thermal conductivity and permeability.

Application: This is an ideal material for sealing applications.

2. PEEK Seats:

PEEK has excellent wear resistance & corrosion resistance. It’s a good material for chemical resistance. Its property of being non-toxic expands the range of applications. It can maintain good performance under high pressure, temperature, and humidity.

Application: It can be used as high pressure and high-temperature valves. Suitable for nuclear-related applications.

3. UHMW Polyethylene Seats:

These seats are used for the valves to be used near radioactive materials.

Application: These are also recommended to be used in the tobacco industry and highly recommend to be used for handling highly abrasive media.

4. Virgin PTFE Seats:

These materials have a very low coefficient of friction and excellent chemical resistance and electrical insulation.

Application: This material will easily deform under high pressure but is suitable to use under the circumstances where electrical insulation is required.

5. Graphite Seats:

Graphite seated valves are suitable for high-temperature liquid applications.

Application: Such valves are ideal for high flow applications like heat transfer fluid service and temperature swing applications.

Connection Types

A valve is not operatable if it’s not connected to a pipe or a pipe system. The connection of these pipes is very important because it can prevent or cause leakage in pipes.

The valves are sometimes categorized as per their connection types. There are different connections are available in the market with valves a few of which are:

1. Threaded Connection:

The valve is connected to the pipe using the pipe threads. These types of connections are usually used where the valve size is small.

The size of the valve should not increase from 2 inches. Such connections are only able to bear the pressure of 1MPa or less.

There are internal and external threads in a valve.

These threads are further divided into tapered threads and parallel threads.

2. Welded Connection:

Sometimes, In critical applications. Where even the small leakage is not acceptable. The perfect shutoff of leakage is crucial.

Examples of such applications can be high-temperature and high-pressure pipeline systems. Weld has are further two types, are Socket Weld and Butt Weld.

3. Flanged Connection:

The last type of connection of valve ends with pipelines at the inlet and outlet points is Flanged Type. Flanged connections are the most commonly used method.

The end connections are in the shape of a flange and the two flanges are connected using bolts & nuts.

This connection type is independent of the pressure requirement and size of the valve.