Innovative Flow Controls
Ball Valves
Two- and Three-Piece Trunnion & Floating Ball Installation, Operation & Maintenance Instructions
Read and understand the following instructions prior to working on the valve. For additional information, please contact our master distributor or contact Innovative Flow Controls directly.
Inspect On Receipt It is the responsibility of the purchaser to thoroughly inspect, upon receipt, each valve or product for damage that may have occurred during transportation or handling. Note any damage by documenting and photographing the valve and more specifically, the area of concern. Immediately report any damage to Innovative Flow Controls.
Storage Store all valves in a suitable sheltered location to prevent damage, corrosion and degradation of the valves’ overall integrity. Protect valves from weather, UV exposure, dampness or foreign material. All valves are shipped from the factory with end caps (aka, end protectors) mounted on both the inlet and outlet. These protectors must remain on the valves until they are ready for installation. Always store valves on palates. Do not, under any circumstances, store valves directly on concrete or other surfaces. If valves are equipped with an actuator or gear operator, please refer to the manufacturer's instructions for storage. If valves are stored outdoors, inject—one a quarterly basis— each of the valves’ fittings with one ounce of approved lubricant. Also lubricate the gearbox and stem fittings. Then cycle the valve once from the fully open position to the fully closed position, and then back to the fully open position. Leaving the valve at an intermediate position for any period of time will result in permanent damage to the soft Copyright 2012 Innovative Flow Controls. All rights reserved.
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valve seat. End covers should not be removed to inspect the valve bore at this time unless there is reason to suspect other damage to the valve.
Installation and Operation Verify Materials and Application/Medium IFC Ball Valves are specifically designed for transportation piping systems, vent systems and storage equipment. Support of flow mediums will vary based on the materials you designated when ordering your ball valves, specifically the material used to construct the body, ball, stem and seat, and also the type of coatings and or platting’s applied. Flow mediums can include petroleum, water, and gasses, including natural gas, CO2 and H20. Using a flow medium that is not compatible with your specific materials and coatings will cause corrosion and/or comprise your valve’s ability to operate. Also ensure that the markings on the valve nameplate, such as part number and pressure class, accurately reflect your application requirements. Most of the valve’s specifications can be determined from a valve’s part number, which can be provided to the manufacturer for questions, the ordering of replacement parts, and specifications. If you are in doubt about your application, contact Innovative Flow Controls, or our master distributor, Protech Sales, USA Corp at 303-471-0040. Installation and Orientation of IFC Ball Valves Prior to installation, remove end covers, clean weld prep, threads and flanges using rags with unused acetone or alcohol. During welding and construction stages, valve must be protected from slag and other foreign debris. Flush the entire line before placing into service. Failure to do so will degrade the integrity of the valve and will cause extensive damage during valve cycling. Actuators, if used, should be attached and tested on the valve before installation.
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Lift the valve using the lifting lugs, if provided, and use only lifting devices that are rated for the valve weight. If lifting lugs are not provided, support the valve using the valve neck. Lifting Valve by Lifting Lugs
Lifting Valve by Valve Neck
Never lift the valve from the gearbox, actuator, hand wheel, or any other protruding part of the valve. IFC Ball Valves are bidirectional and are tested at the factory to provide a tight shut-off from either direction. Special instructions will apply if the valve must be installed with the stem in the down position. Actuator and Gearbox stops are preset at the factory and should require no further adjustments. With the exception of ‘fail-safe closed’ valves, all other valves are shipped in the open position. Valves should not be closed until the bore of the valve has been cleaned of all debris. Take caution with the ‘fail-safe closed’ valves. The ball surface is exposed and particularly vulnerable to welding slag. Sand blasting and painting of valves not in-line should only be done with protective covers on the end flanges and/or weld bevels (to avoid the ingress of sand into the ball and seat area). Care should be taken not to blast the RTJ groove or the raised face gasket sealing surface. When handling or installing the valve, keep the valve in the full open position whenever possible to prevent foreign matter from entering the body. Foreign matter will cause damage to the ball and seat sealing surfaces. Always move the valve in such a way that the body supports the load. Flange End Valves Flange End Valves may be bolted into line using two open boxed end wrenches. Power wrenches may be required for larger valves. Make sure the line flanges are properly aligned and will not distort or bind the valve. Use new flange gaskets. 1. 2.
Bolt and nut threads should be lubricated to obtain proper loading of bolts. Finger-tighten all nuts first.
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3.
Tighten bolts, using the crisscross method and torque each bolt to ASME or gasket
manufacturer’s specification. 4. Install the hand wheel immediately after the complete installation of the valve on the pipeline to prevent water and debris from entering and damaging the valve stem. 5. Flush the entire line before placing into service. 6. Caution: After hydro testing, the valve must be closed, and any water left in the body must be drained from the body by opening the drain plug. Trapped water will freeze, expand and cause serious damage to your ball valve. Butt Weld End Valves Butt Weld End Valves should be welded into the line by qualified welders, using qualified procedures. IFC strongly recommends that all welding procedures follow ASME guidelines, and that welders are qualified per ASME Section 9, (9780791832547) Welding and Brazing Qualifications (Section IX) 2010. CAUTION: Keep weld end valves open while installing/welding into the line. Weld slag created during the welding process will damage gate sealing surfaces if lines are not flushed before placing into service. 1. 2. 3.
4. 5.
6. 7. 8.
Use solvent to clean grease or rust inhibitor from the gate and/or bore of the valve. Make sure the line and valve weld bevels are properly aligned and will not bind the valve. Electric welding equipment is preferred for all installations. If only oxygen-acetylene welding equipment is available, extreme caution should be taken to ensure excess welding temperature does not damage the sealing components of the valve. Weld with the gate in "Full Open" position. Keep the valve in the "Full Open" position until the line has been thoroughly cleaned of weld slag in the valve bore and line (by pigging and/or flushing) before changing the position of the gate. Install the hand wheel immediately after the complete installation of the valve on the pipeline to prevent water and debris from entering and damaging the valve stem. Flush the entire line before placing into service. Caution: After hydro testing, the valve must be closed, and any water left in the body must be drained from the body by opening the drain plug. Trapped water will freeze, expand and cause serious damage to your ball valve.
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Ball Valve Operation Hydrostatic Testing IFC valves are tested per API-6D test requirements. Each valve is tested to a factory closure test at 100% of maximum operating pressure. Valves should not be used as closures for systems where the operating pressure exceeds these figures. The valve should be left open and blind flanges should be used as the closures. IFC Ball Valves include a spiral wound graphite gasket which ensures the sealing of the packing gland even if the O ring fails to function. Trunnion Ball Valves Only Double Block and Bleed Trunnion ball valve features the front ball sealing design structure. Each seat of the ball valve can separately cut off the medium at both upstream and downstream to achieve double block function. When the ball valve is closed, body cavity is segregated from both upstream and downstream even there is pressure at both ends. The medium left in the body cavity could increase the pressure to propel the seats. The medium could be bled out through the relief valve to ensure valve safety. Piston-Action Seats The ball is fixed and the seat rings are floating, free to move along the valve axis. Side load generated by the pressure acting on the ball is absorbed by bearings. At low pressure the seat sealing action is achieved by the thrust of the springs acting on the seat rings. As the pressure increases the fluid pressure pushes the seat rings against the ball.
Self-Relieving Seats IFC Ball Valve seats are self-relieving unless otherwise specified. This means the pressure on the ball side of the seat will cause it to back away from the ball, thus relieving any excess pressure in the body cavity. For this reason, it is not necessary to install a special device to relieve excess body cavity pressure. To open the valve, rotate the hand wheel in the counter clockwise direction. Conversely, to close the valve, turn the hand wheel in the clockwise direction. If your valves does not open or close smoothly, refer to the Troubleshooting section below. Also, carefully observe the position indicator when opening, closing or cycling the valve to ensure the valve is operating when the hand wheel is turned.
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Ball Valve Maintenance Your safety should always be the top priority when servicing IFC Valves. Always use required safety equipment and follow OSHA guidelines when operating and/or performing routine maintenance on IFC Valves. Once in service, ball valves should be cycled once per month, or at a minimum, twice yearly. For manually operated valves, inject grease into the bearing during cycling. If your valve is actuated, refer to the operating instructions of the actuator. Lubricate your IFC ball valve twice yearly using medium-weight grease. This will reduce stem torque and will minimize wear of the stem, seat and ball. Access for lubricating the stem seals is through a vented grease fitting that is located on the stem bonnet. There are two O-rings on the stem. The bottom O-ring is the primary pressure seal and the top O-ring is a weather seal. In the unlikely event of a primary stem seal failure, leaks will occur through the grease fitting. To temporarily fix the leak, the vented grease fitting can be replaced with a 1/8” NPT pipe plug. This will cause the weather seal to become the primary pressure seal. At this time both of the stem seals should be replaced at the earliest opportunity. DO NOT remove the bonnet while the valve is under pressure! Warning: Under no circumstances must the slotted vented grease fitting be replaced with a non-slotted grease fitting.
Checking for Seat Leakage All trunnion mounted IFC Ball Valves include a Bleed Valve. To check for a tight closure or seat seal, open the needle (bleed) valve slightly. After the initial blow-down, there should be no additional flow. Lubrication guns may be air operated or manually operated depending on the customer’s preference. Either type of lubrication gun should be capable of injecting lubricant or sealant above the maximum line pressure of the valve and should be supplied with a giant button head adapter. IFC Ball Valves are generally designed with auxiliary sealant fittings that are used to inject sealant directly to the ball sealing area. This is sometimes necessary in preventing damage to the seats by flushing debris away from the seats and in the event of a damaged seat caused by debris in the line. Auxiliary sealant fittings should not be removed if there is pressure in the line and should never be coated or painted.
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Metal seated valves do not incorporate a sealant injection fitting as a standard option. The seats should therefore be greased as follows: For 4” valves and smaller: • •
• •
Open the valve to the fully open position Inject grease through the single giant button-head located on the valve body. As grease is injected, the body cavity area around the ball is filled with grease. The amount of grease will vary from 2 ounces for 1 1/2” valves up to 10 ounces for a 4” valve. No damage can result from over greasing. Stroke the valve several times to distribute the grease to the surface of the ball. Return the valve to the desired position, either fully open or fully closed.
For 6” valves and larger: • • •
•
Close the valve fully and inject each of the giant button head grease fittings with two ounces (810 strokes of a manual grease gun) of lubricant. Open the valve to the fully open-position and then inject each of the giant button-heads in the same fashion described above. Cycle the valve to the closed position to further distribute the grease to the surface of the ball. When injecting sealant, repeat the above steps several times to fully distribute the sealant. Always make your last injection of the sealant in the closed position. Place the valve in the position desired, either fully open or fully closed. Avoid leaving the valve in an intermediate position for long periods.
Troubleshooting your IFC Ball Valve The Valve is Leaking from the Stem Packing Possible Causes • Packing is scratched or damaged. • Packing is damaged or compressed beyond usefulness. • The bolts have become loosened. • The O-ring seal has been damaged. Possible Solution Inject flexible graphite sealant into the stem fitting. Tighten the bolts, replace the O-rings.
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Valve does not Seal Completely. Possible Causes • The valve is not closed completely. • There is contamination around the seat area. • The seat face or the seat O-ring are damaged. Possible Solution Two sealant injection joints, or grease zerks, are located on the valve body. A damaged or leaking seat can be remedied using a 960 valve sealant product, such as Nordstrom 960 Valve Sealant. Inject the sealant into the grease zerks using a grease gun. When leaking occurs from the stem packing, close the valve and release the cavity pressure using the body vent fitting. Using a grease gun, inject flexible graphite into the packing box. Be sure ambient temperatures meet the requirements of the flexible graphite product.
The ball will not close fully. Possible Causes • The valve body is filled with debris. • Medium is frozen in the body cavity. • Infrequent operation and/or lack of lubrication. • Improper setting of actuator limit switches or stops in worm gear. Possible Solution Any water left in the body must be drained from the body by opening the drain plug. If necessary, apply heat or inject antifreeze solution in the body of the valve. Lubricate actuator.
The valve is difficult to operate. Possible Causes • Valve has not been cycled on a regular basis. • Medium is frozen in the cavity. • Lack of lubrication. Possible Solution Try cycling the valve during warmer weather. Grease the gear op.
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The valve is leaking from the grease fittings/zerks. Possible Causes Screw caps have become loose. Possible Solution Tighten the cap or replace the grease fitting.
Replacement Parts Correctly determine which parts are required and provide the information shown on the valve nameplate of from the valve’s RFID tag using the Ontrase RFID valve identification system. Do not change any parts in the field without the involvement of Innovative Flow Controls.
Warning For safety reasons take the following precautions before you start work on the valve: • •
Wear safety equipment before servicing or before making any adjustments on the valve. Depressurize, drain and vent lines before removing the valve from service.
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