What are Diaphragm Valves?

Diaphragm valves are bi-directional on-off throttle valves. They control the flow and speed of fluids through an area. Diaphragm valves regulate the area through which fluids enter or exit the system. The name diaphragm comes from a thin and flexible membrane that moves up and down within the valve’s body, causing it to open and close. Diaphragm valves can be made from plastics, single-use materials, and stainless steel. Stainless steel Diaphragm valves are easy to maintain, and they are clean and leak-proof.

How Do Diaphragm Valves Work?

Diaphragm valves are pretty similar to pinch valves in the way they work. The valve has a linear compressor that pushes the thin diaphragm into contact with the valve’s body. When the user decides to shut the valve, the actuator is pressed or turned, pushing the membrane to the edge of the valve, thus closing the valve.

Criteria for Selecting a Diaphragm Valve

You may encounter some problems specifying the correct valve size to use as there are no industry standard diaphragm valves. Below are some parameters you can consider when purchasing a diaphragm valve, so you can make the right choice.

● Valve size: The size of the valve is important since they have different throttling applications. As such, the size of the valve has a way of affecting the control of the fluids. To get the right valve size to use, ensure that the volume of the process fluid moving through the system is known. Hence, it’s important to know the state of the liquid, how it flows, as well as the viscosity and specific gravity of the fluid. Endure to also know the inlet and outlet pressures and temperatures.

● Deciding the Type of Actuator to Use: The actuator type will determine the size of the diaphragm valve you should select. Actuation types include electric motor, thermal, pneumatic, hydraulic, etc. This factor determines how the valve is opened or closed. The type of actuator you use depends on the force of the fluid flow through the system.

Advantages of Using a Diaphragm Valve

1. It serves as an on-off and throttling service valves
2. There is no case of stem leakage when using the diaphragm valve
3. The diaphragm valve provides tight bubble service
4. There are no pockets that trap impurities, slurries, and other solids.
5. Diaphragm valves have suitable linings that are resistant to chemical attacks.

Disadvantages of the Diaphragm Valve

1. Diaphragm valves are not suitable for use where the temperature is below -60 or more than 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. It is also not suitable for use in a flow system, where the flow pressure is more than 300psi.
3. Diaphragm valves are not ideal for use in multi-turn operations

Application of Diaphragm Valves

Diaphragm valves are used in different industries because they are cheap, very effective, and made in different sizes and forms. Below are some common places where the diaphragm valve is of importance:
1. Power industry
2. Vacuum services
3. Breweries
4. Corrosive applications
5. Water treatment facilities, and
6. Pharmaceutical manufacturing systems

What Are Butterfly Valves?

A butterfly valve controls fluid flow using a rotating circular plate or two hinged semicircular plates attached to a transverse spindle and mounted on a pipe to prevent or control flow. Butterfly valves are used mainly in places with limited space. They are very easy to operate and they open fast, with just a 90-degree rotation of the handle that will cause the valve’s complete opening or closure.

Advantages of Using Butterfly Valves

1. They are relatively light in weight
2. Butterfly valves work well in small spaces since they have a compact design
3. Have low-pressure drop and high-pressure recovery
4. They are used to provide bubble-tight service

Disadvantages of the Butterfly Valve

1. The butterfly valve leaves residual materials in the pipeline.
2. The flow turbulence affects the movement of the disc.
3. Sometimes, the thickness of the valve may restrict the fluid flow.
4. Thick liquids can sometimes prevent the disc from moving freely.

Application of Butterfly Valve

Some common applications where the butterfly valve offers effective control includes:
1. Vacuum service
2. Slurry and similar services
3. High pressure and high-temperature water and steam services
4. Compressed air or gas applications
5. Cooling water, air, games, and fire protection.

The most significant difference between the butterfly and diaphragm valves is their valve elements. The diaphragm valve uses a thin, flexible membrane, whereas a butterfly valve uses a circular plate that controls fluid flow by closing and opening.
Are you in search of top-quality valves for your system? Visit Adamant valves to get high-quality sanitary valves, including stainless steel diaphragm valves, butterfly valves, pneumatic valves, and electric valves for different flow systems. Feel free to call us today at (949) 407 8897 to reach our experts and get the perfect valve for your system.

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How to Maintain Sanitary Diaphragm Valves?

Sanitary diaphragm valves act both as a gasket and dynamic seal. They are often exposed to harsh chemicals, high temperatures, and high pressures, resulting in significant wear and an increased need for routine maintenance. Proper valve maintenance requires several steps on the part of the maintenance team to ensure that the valve will operate at its full potential.

Valve/installation assembly.

One of the most important elements of maintenance is a good fitting when replacing the diaphragm. Failure to assemble the valve properly may result in batch contamination, poor valve performance, and a short life cycle. Proper installation of the diaphragm according to the manufacturer’s instructions is essential. If the installation is incorrect, excessive force during operation may damage the diaphragm. The fluids can then pass through the closed valve or, in the worst case, cause a catastrophic failure that results in fluid contamination and leakage. Tightening and retightening are also important steps in the assembly process that can often lead to seal failure, either by making the seal too tight or too loose for proper performance.

Replacing the diaphragm.

Another aspect of valve maintenance is knowing when a replacement diaphragm is needed. To ensure that the valves do not fail, some companies regularly change the diaphragm (eg every six months), whether necessary or not. Facilities that use diaphragms with shorter life expectancy, such as rubber diaphragms, may be more likely to require more regular changes. However, constant replacement of diaphragms without any sign of failure can cost factories unnecessary time and money. Knowing the signs of a valve failure is also essential to maintaining the valves of an installation. Physical signs that a valve or diaphragm needs to be replaced are excessive wear, corrosion, or fluid leakage.

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Operation structure

A Sanitary diaphragm valve can be used for access to wine, vinegar, and other liquids. It consists of two parts, the upper part is the opening and closing plate, while the lower part is divided into the main body, and the main body is composed of the cover, the main shell, and the valve core. An air hole is arranged on the wall of the liquid outlet pipe of the main housing. One end of the air hole is connected with a gas pipe, and the other end is connected to the air. A pull rod is fixed in the spool, a spring seat is arranged on the spool, and spring is placed on the spring seat. The opening and closing plate are placed on the cover of the main body, and they are connected with a pull rod, and a handle and a vent plug are fixed on the opening and closing plate.

The Sanitary diaphragm valve is operated by remote control or manual operation through the handle of the driving device. The driving device has three standards: normally closed type, normally open type, and pneumatic type. It has the advantages of simple structure, beautiful shape, quick disassembly and assembly, flexible operation, small fluid resistance, and safe and reliable use, which is widely used in the control of water, gas, oil, and corrosive medium in chemical, petroleum, metallurgy, water heating, food, medicine, and other industries.

Working principle

The tight fit of the body and diaphragm of the sanitary diaphragm valve provides a body seal and seat seal, ensuring complete isolation of the internal and external environment of the pipe, so the sanitary diaphragm valve is suitable for the sterile process. The sanitary diaphragm valve opens and closes by moving the stem up and down. When the sanitary diaphragm stem is in the upper position, the spherical diaphragm bends upward to form a conducting state of the valve; as the stem moves up and down the spool causes the diaphragm to bend, forcing the diaphragm to press against the seating area or shut off the path of pipe flow.

Sanitary diaphragm valves can be operated manually or pneumatically and can be controlled by an intelligent controller. It is very suitable for pipe fluid control and on/off tasks, so it is also widely used in the health level of wine, dairy, beverage, and other food industries and the pharmaceutical field of aseptic conditions.

Suitable for ultra-pure, corrosive, and inert medium

As the working medium is only in contact with the diaphragm and valve body of the sanitary diaphragm valve, both of which can be used in a variety of different materials, the valve can ideally control a variety of working media. Sanitary diaphragm valves are especially suitable for media with chemical corrosion or suspended particles. The working temperature of the diaphragm valve is usually limited by the diaphragm and body lining material used, its working temperature range is about – 50 ~ 175 ℃.

A Sanitary diaphragm valve is used in pharmaceutical, biological, purified water treatment, and other places with higher health requirements. The structure design of the diaphragm valve itself is particularly suitable for ultra-pure medium or serious pollution, very viscous liquid, gas, corrosive or inert medium. When combined with control equipment, the diaphragm valve can replace other traditional control systems, especially for solid and easy to pollute the inert medium, and the diaphragm film can be replaced after long-term use.

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Sanitary diaphragm valves are designed for ultra-pure or heavily polluted, very viscous liquids, gases, corrosive or lazy media. When combined with control equipment, diaphragm valves are more likely to replace other traditional control systems, especially for solid and easily contaminated inert media. The maintenance operations of the sanitary diaphragm valve are as follows.

*Sanitary diaphragm valves should be sent to drab ventilated rooms and should not be stacked;

*It is necessary to seal both ends of the channel of the inventory diaphragm valve to prevent foreign matter from entering the inner cavity and damaging the sealing parts;

*The metal working surface of the diaphragm valve should be removed dirt and coated with anti-rust oil, and grease should be often lubricated in the oil cup;

*Do not brush grease on the outside of the liner or rubber diaphragm to avoid the occurrence of rubber swelling and affect the service life of the valve;

*The handwheel should be rotated counterclockwise during storage or discontinuation to keep the valve in a slightly opened state to prevent the diaphragm from losing its elasticity due to prolonged pressure;

*During transportation or installation, the sling shall not be tied to the handwheel or stem and shall not collide with other metal or hard objects to avoid damaging parts and linings;

*The operating conditions and media of the pipeline should be carefully checked before installation to ensure that the valve is suitable for the scope of application, so as to avoid the unnecessary loss or even accidental accidents caused by improper selection;

*The inner chamber of the valve body shall be cleaned before installation to avoid fouling jam or damage to the sealing parts, and check whether all the connecting bolts of the parts are properly fastened;

*It is necessary to frequently view the parts touched with the media during operation and replace the vulnerable parts regularly according to the practical use;

*Be careful not to tighten or loosen the diaphragm too tightly when replacing it;

*When manually operating the diaphragm valve, the valve shall not be opened or closed by means of the auxiliary lever, so as to avoid excessive torque and damage to the driving parts or sealing parts;

*After maintenance, the diaphragm valve should be tested according to the relevant test rules before it can be installed.

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Sanitary diaphragm valve has the advantages of simple structure, beautiful shape, quick disassembly and assembly, flexible operation, small fluid resistance, and reliable use, which is suitable for water, gas, oil, and corrosive medium control of chemical, petroleum, metallurgy, water heating, food, medicine, and other industries.

The pneumatic sanitary diaphragm valve is a special form of the cut-off valve, that appeared in the 1920s. Its opening and closing parts are a diaphragm made of a soft material that separates the inner chamber of the valve body from the inner chamber of the bonnet and the driving parts. The most prominent feature of the pneumatic sanitary diaphragm valve is that the diaphragm separates the lower body chamber from the upper bonnet chamber, which prevents the stem and disc above the diaphragm from being corroded by the medium, eliminating the packing seal structure and causing no leakage of the medium.

The pneumatic sanitary diaphragm valve is a clamping class valve, and it is mainly used for opening and closing in the pipeline. It has two main advantages: the first one is that the valve does not require a separate stem packing seal structure, and the diaphragm plays a stem sealing role while cutting off the medium; the second is the flexible diaphragm has a reliable closing performance, and it can even do a good cut off the sewage. Therefore, the operating mechanism and media channel are completely separated, so that the pneumatic diaphragm valve can not only apply to the food industry and medical and health industry, but also applicable to some medium that is dangerous and difficult to transport.

Pneumatic sanitary diaphragm valves are designed to be clamped within the body by a thin, hemispherical metal film as a barrier between stem and fluid. Valve closure is achieved by pressing the disc against the seat through the stem head and metal film.

The valve is opened by an internal spring that lifts the disc as the stem rises and disengages from contact with the film. As the valve travel is equal to the film travel, the valve features a much smaller lift than the general valve. To overcome resistance losses due to low lift, the seat and flow area are larger than normal valves for a greater flow rate.

As the valve seat is large, the force is much greater than the usual valve to obtain adequate sealing force on the disc. The disc does not push the stem away from the seat, so the valve is suitable for differential pressure unidirectional flow, and the medium is usually “under the seat”.

In general, the choice of metal diaphragm valves in high temperature and high-pressure environments is economical and effective, and the valve is also available in low – temperature and low-pressure applications where synthetic rubber diaphragm valves are not desired.

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The sanitary diaphragm valve is one of the important pieces of equipment in the pharmaceutical industry. It is a special form of truncation valve, and its opening and closing parts are made of soft materials, which can separate the inner cavity of the valve body from the inner cavity of the cover.

Regulations and instructions on sanitary diaphragm valves

There are many regulations and instructions on sanitary diaphragm valves in the world. For example, the FDA even explicitly specifies the use of sanitary diaphragm valves to ensure good cleanliness in sterile applications. In terms of the EU standards, sanitary diaphragm valves are required to avoid cross-contamination and facilitate equipment cleaning. Therefore, sanitary valves can be used for easy cleaning, easy disinfection, self-emptying, and cavity filling applications.

Sanitary diaphragm valve in the pharmaceutical technology

Besides the sanitary diaphragm valve product itself needs to meet the corresponding requirements and standards, the corresponding regulations shall also be complied with when producing, storing, and distributing pharmaceutical quality water or ultra-pure steam. In order to ensure the stability and reliability of product quality, components of pharmaceutical water equipment also have corresponding quality requirements. Therefore, all kinds of sanitary diaphragm valves need to be designed and developed in combination with the corresponding pharmaceutical technology.

Taking the sealing of a sanitary diaphragm valve as an example, the sealing system of a sanitary diaphragm valve will directly affect the purity of the product. Valves in conventional sealing systems are sealed by the sealing profile on the diaphragm, but generally, the body itself has no additional sealing profile. A ring gap is formed on the sealing surface since the diaphragm is bolted to the actuator, then the media infiltrates through the closing action and is discharged when the valve is opened, causing contamination.

According to the above situation, some valve enterprises have developed special sealing methods. Both the body and the diaphragm are known to have a hermetically sealed profile, which reduces the annular clearance when the diaphragm squeezes against the body, so as to prevent the media from entering and significantly reduces the pump effect.

How do sanitary diaphragm valves work?

Although sanitary diaphragm valves are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry, customers need to pay attention to a few things when operating equipment. For example, the diaphragm valve opening network system should not be changed at will. After installation and testing conditions are met, all diaphragm valves should be debugged and adjusted using special intelligent instruments, and each valve opening degree should be locked to achieve hydraulic condition balance in the pipe network. During the normal operation of the pipe network system, do not change the opening of the diaphragm valve at will, especially do not change the opening locking device.

Besides that, do not install sanitary cut-off valves. When repairing a certain ring road, the sanitary diaphragm valve on the ring road can be closed. At this time, the sanitary diaphragm valve acts as the sanitary cut-off valve to cut off the water flow. Therefore, if a sanitary diaphragm valve is installed, there is no need to install a sanitary cut-off valve.

Pharmaceutical water has strict requirements on cleanliness, and sanitary diaphragm valves, as equipment in direct contact with the media, should comply with relevant regulations to ensure the purity of the media. In addition, relevant enterprises need to combine the pharmaceutical water technology to develop equipment in line with the actual conditions of the industry, so as to facilitate the clean production of the pharmaceutical industry.

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In production, the sanitary diaphragm valve is mainly used to control water, gas, oil, and other media, which is applicable to different industries such as petroleum, metallurgy, medicine, brewing, beverage, and dairy products. Sanitary diaphragm valves are so popular because of their superior performance as follows.

Scientific Design for Sanitary Diaphragm Valves

The sanitary diaphragm valve is a flexible diaphragm or composite diaphragm in the body and bonnet, and the closing member is a compression device connected to the diaphragm. Its seat can be weir or straight through the pipe wall. The advantage of the sanitary diaphragm valve is that its control mechanism is separated from the medium path, which not only ensures the purity of the working medium but also prevents the possibility of the medium in the pipeline hitting the working part of the control mechanism.

Flexible Operation for Sanitary Diaphragm Valves

In addition, there is no need for any form of separate sealing at the stem unless used as a safety device in controlling hazardous media. In the diaphragm valve, the working medium only comes into contact with the diaphragm and the body, both of which can be made of a variety of different materials, so the valve is ideal for controlling a variety of working media, especially those with chemically aggressive or suspended particles. The working temperature of the sanitary diaphragm valve is usually limited by the diaphragm and body lining material used, its working temperature range is about – 50 ~ 175 ℃.

Simple Structure for Sanitary Diaphragm Valves

The diaphragm valve can be controlled freely in different media. Water, liquid, gas, all kinds of stamp products can be used to cut off and connect, and there will be no leakage. The actuator for the diaphragm valve is simple and can be operated remotely or manually, and different media can be controlled by pressing the rubber film directly onto the seat using the stem. Moreover, it has many connection modes and is very flexible in operation, which includes quick-release flange connection, welding connection, and movable flange connection.

Widespread Use for Sanitary Diaphragm Valves

The actuator of the diaphragm valve consists of three types, one is air type, one is normally closed and the other is normally open. All three of the standard valves are aesthetically pleasing and simple in construction. Sanitary diaphragm valves are used in many industries to control fluid, solid, gas, and other media, and their control function is to make cutoff and connection flexibly. It is applicable to water heating, food, medicine, and other industries, as well as petroleum and metallurgy, and other highly corrosive industries.

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The advantage of the sanitary diaphragm valve is that its control mechanism is separated from the medium path, which not only ensures the purity of the working medium but also prevents the possibility of the medium in the pipeline hitting the working part of the control mechanism.

In addition, there is no need for any form of separate sealing at the stem, unless it is used as a safety device in controlling hazardous media for hygienic diaphragm valves. In the diaphragm valve, as the working medium only contacts the diaphragm and body, both of which can use a variety of different materials, so the valve is ideal for controlling a variety of working media, especially those with chemical corrosion or suspended particles.

Sanitary diaphragm valves are constructed with a corrosion-resistant liner body and a corrosion-resistant diaphragm, with a non-stuffing box structure, an elastic diaphragm with a throttling element, and a smooth body flow path. Therefore, the pneumatic membrane diaphragm valve has the advantages of small negative force, large flow, no external leakage, convenience, reliability, fire prevention, and explosion-proof, and is widely used in the flow regulation of non-polluting media in the industrial automation system.

The closing and opening of the sanitary diaphragm valve are achieved by the action of pressure from the pipe to strengthen the rubber diaphragm. When the pressure medium enters the valve chamber, the diaphragm presses down and closes the valve passage; when the pressure of the control chamber is discharged into the air or downstream piping, the diaphragm rises and the valve passage is opened.

The valve has no stem, gasket, directional seat, etc. The only moving part in the passage is the diaphragm, so there is no rust and cupping phenomenon, and it has higher stability. Moreover, there are a variety of structure and control modes, which can be applied to a variety of fluid control needs.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading our article and we hope it can help you better understand the sanitary diaphragm valves. If you want to learn more about sanitary diaphragm valves, we would like to advise you to visit Adamant Valve homepage for more information.

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Therefore, the control mechanism is completely separated from the media channel, making the diaphragm valve applicable not only to the food industry and medical and health industry but also to some difficult transmission mediums and dangerous mediums.

Generally, sanitary diaphragm valves are recommended for use under conditions of service or for media requiring strict sealing performance, mud medium, abrasion, lightweight construction, low-pressure cut-off (small pressure difference), small leakage to the atmosphere, and abrasion; Besides, diaphragm valves can also be used on the occasion of double adjustment, throttling, channel constriction, low noise, cavitation and vaporization, and small operating torque; Under the conditions of high-temperature medium, high-pressure medium, high-pressure cut-off (large pressure difference), quick opening and closing and short structure length, diaphragm valve is not selected, except for metal diaphragm valve.

Due to the structural design of the diaphragm valve itself, it is particularly suitable for ultra-pure media or highly polluting, highly viscous liquids, gases, corrosive or inert media. When combined with control equipment, a diaphragm valve can replace other traditional control systems, especially for solid and non-polluting inert media. The sanitary diaphragm valve operating mechanism in the pipeline is not exposed to the transport fluid, so it is not polluting and does not require packing, and the stem packing part is not likely to leak. Therefore, diaphragm valves are specially designed for transporting corrosive, viscous fluids, such as mud, food, medicine, and woven adhesives.

The metal sanitary diaphragm valve is constructed by clamping a thin, semispherical sheet of metal into the body as a barrier between the stem and the fluid. The valve closing is achieved by pressing the disc onto the seat through the stem head and metal film, while the valve is opened by an internal spring and the disc rises when the stem rises and disengages in contact with the membrane. There is no direct contact between the stem and the disc, and the disc does not pass through the stem leaving the seat, so this valve is used in a differential one-way flow and is usually “under the seat”.However, a large amount of backflow should be avoided in use, so as not to affect valve closure.

Generally speaking, it is economical and effective to select a metal diaphragm valve under high temperature and high pressure. This valve can also be used at low temperature and low pressure when a synthetic rubber diaphragm valve is not desired.

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The diaphragm valve that appeared in the 1920s is a special form of cut-off valve. Its opening and closing parts are a piece of the diaphragm made of soft material to separate the body cavity, cover cavity, and drive parts, so it is called a diaphragm valve.

The most prominent feature of the diaphragm valve is the diaphragm to the lower body cavity and the upper cover cavity separated so that the upper part of the diaphragm stem, disc, and other parts are not subject to medium corrosion, which saves the packing seal structure, and there will be no leakage of the medium.

Stainless steel sanitary diaphragm valve

Stainless steel sanitary diaphragm valve uses the stem to tighten elastomer film on the seat to block the air path. Rotating the handwheel can drive the stem up and down so that the diaphragm from the seat to open the valve or the diaphragm tight pressure on the seat to close the valve. If the nitrile butadiene rubber diaphragm is used, the valves are suitable for the front-end and drainage pipeline and the noncorrosive gas transport within the temperature of 25 ~ 80 ℃; If the fluorine rubber diaphragm is used, the valve can be used to the high vacuum system with a temperature range of – 30 ~ 150 ℃.

Although the stainless steel sanitary diaphragm valve has a variety of unique performances, each kind of valve body in use has a service life and maintenance cycle. Only the sanitary diaphragm valve maintenance works well, the valve body can better play its performance and have a longer service life. Attention must be paid to the maintenance of the sanitary diaphragm valve in the process of use, and there are detailed descriptions of the maintenance requirements in the operation manual.

Diaphragm Valve Maintenance Requirements

There are certain requirements for the maintenance of the stainless steel sanitary diaphragm valve. Due to the existence of a diaphragm in this valve body structure, there are strict requirements in daily storage. The valve body must be placed in a dry and ventilated indoor, prevent the aging of the diaphragm caused by the damage of the valve body.

In addition to the maintenance of a sanitary diaphragm valve, the diaphragm is also an important maintenance part in the process of use. According to different media, the maintenance cycle for the diaphragm is not the same, and it needed to be replaced according to the different cycles so that the valve body can be better used. The metal surface of the valve body must be kept clean without oil stains and appropriate application of rust remover, so as to prevent the valve body from serious oxidation corrosion.

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