Knife gate valves are mainly used for separation and on – off purposes in machines which contains suspended solids. This type of gate valves has a minimal drop in pressure at fully open position, their operation is simple, having a relatively low weight and are economical. They are particularly useful for slurry, viscous, corrosive, and abrasive media

Knife gate valves are designed and fabricated to work in extreme environments, basically having a blade that is sharp enough to cut through heavy liquids. They are especially useful as water treatment valves where the main issue of concern is corrosion. Hence, to optimize the main valve design for the slurry media, it is beneficial to have a knife fabricated out of stainless steel that is acid-proof to makes it less prone to damages by corrosion and due to this it needs less frequency of maintenance or even a complete replacement.

Knife gate valves vs. gate valves: Head to Head Comparison

The Gate valves as well as the Knife gate valves are specifically designed for turn on – off purposes where the valves are fully opened or fully closed.

The common applications which involve them both are:

•           Slurries

•           Heavy oils

•           Non-flammable viscous fluids

•           Wastewater

•           Clean water

The gate valves, and the knife gate valves are mainly different in the aspect that the knife gate valve often has a sharpened disc to better cut through slurry/viscous media. When comparing the short face-to-face dimension, the knife gate valve has to a dimensionally wider gate valve, the former is light weighted than the latter.

Pros of Knife Gate Valve:

• Operating Reliability
• Modularly designed
• Minimum/Short opening and closing time
• Dust free and Clean operation mechanism owing to a tight body design
• Standing column of material is easier to cut through by the knife action
• Ease of maintenance

General Applications of Knife Gate Valve:

1. Slurry Lines

2. Sludge and Viscous Media Handling

3. Pulp and Paper Stock Lines

4. Dry Solid and Powder Handling

5. High Temperature Gas Lines

Industries where it is used:

Bulk Powders, Cement, Chemical, Fly Ash, Iron Ore, Lime, Metal, Mining, Steel Mills

Knife Gate Valve for Metal and Mining operations:

Finding the right Knife gate valves for mining application is no easy task, and depends upon a number of variables including the application, what you need the valve to do and how it should perform. Since the industrial applications are becoming more demanding, pressures on the design and manufacture of valves have increased. They are supposed to be befitting all types of extreme external and internal environments to function constantly and precisely in demanding situations to meet their intended usage.

• Grinding

The grinding circuit puts forth numerous issues for selecting the valves for the purpose. The large particle sizes combined with the higher concentration of solids in addition to higher specific gravity makes the selection of valves critical to ensure minimum downtime possible. On introducing the knife gate valves to the grinding circuit, it is necessary to be thoughtful about the shutdown procedure of the pipe design and the discharge pump. It’s always better practice to mount the valves on a sloping pipe to avoid the closure of the valve against a bed of settled product, and also to minimize time between pump shutdown and valve closing.

• Leaching

Leaching is the kind of process that provide some of the most demanding operating conditions for valves. This process basically involves a higher range of wear and tear applications coupled with a highly corrosive substances usually at high temperatures.

• Separation

The Separation process which includes classifiers, hydro cyclones and flotations processes a large volume of slurry, segregating it based on their different sizes or their specific gravity. It is a challenging task to isolate the high-density slurry produced by these processes in a secure and proper way.

The Selection:

Since the mining processes are of high-intensity and criticality there is a need for a knife gate valve that is of higher grade which can provide an outstanding separation performance with zero to minimal leakage shut-off, and with no discharging in the environment during the above-mentioned operating procedures in the mining, to name a few.

A valve application may be for separation, control or safety. Once determined what the mode of operation is, it is vital that the valve selection is based on proper and precise process information. The mining operation consists of a variety processes where the valve selection may vary, according to the size and shape of particles, chemical content, high pressure, high temperatures, etc.

Why Us?

We have long been the pioneer in valves for mining as one of the industry renowned slurry knife gate valve manufacturers. Right from the grinding circuit through to the refined or smelted products our knife gate valves have got the job done for years.

We at Vtork Controls make sure that the job is getting done in the right way with no compromise in effective design and quality. Our main aim is solving the problems that are present in the mining applications by analyzing the past application database with which our experience and expertise are put forth to fabricate the valves that incorporate new technology to overturn these issues. Being one of the leading knife gate valve suppliers in India, our goal at all times is to offer excellent performance, and low maintenance downtime solutions that solve our Customers’ most demanding application needs.