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Aug 26, 2023

Ceramic ball valves in water treatment applications

Ceramic ball valves lower costs and improve longevity in water treatment

Ceramic ball valves lower costs and improve longevity in water treatment applications

Compared to solenoid valves, ceramic ball valves offer improved longevity and wear resistance, and lower costs. According to Anelia Hough, water treatment consultant at Allmech, a leading South African manufacturer of boilers and supplier of water treatment components, they’re ideal for water-saving systems, industrial automatic control systems, automatic sewage systems, environmental protection projects, water supply and drainage, food and water treatment, and irrigation systems.

Hough says that the proprietary 3-way Runxin valves that Allmech stocks have proven especially useful in water treatment applications.

"Recently, one of our customers installed a filtration plant to treat surface water coming from a nearby river," she says. "Water turbidity was the main challenge. Due to the quality of incoming water, the backwash cycle needed cleaned, filtered water. The objective in this application was to ensure the filter media beds were thoroughly cleaned during backwash cycles. During a backwash, the media should be adequately raised and mixed to get rid of contaminants. We installed a single L-shaped 3-way ceramic valve instead of two solenoid valves, switching or diverting the flow direction of the incoming water between raw river water and filtered water. When multiple units need clean water diverted, there is an exponential saving."

In the service position, the 3-way valve allowed raw water from the river to be treated, but once the control valve position was changed back to start the backwash, the 3-way valve changed position to allow clean water for backwash cycle to enter the valve.

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Another Allmech customer operates a dairy manufacturing facility that operates 24/7. Part of the company's operation is its boiler, which provides steam into the facility. A duplex water softener was installed with two softener control valves.

"The Runxin F74 softener control valves have a function to interlock valves in parallel system to have one valve in regeneration, but the other valve is in service," says Hough. "Allmech installed a 3-way valve to change the water flow from standby unit to the service unit within seconds. The objective in this application was to ensure soft water would be supplied 24/7 to the boiler. Because the system ensured that one valve was regenerating while the other was in service, the customer only required one brine tank, which resulted in further cost savings."

Runxin's ceramic ball valves provides several design features to improve performance compared to ball valves made from traditional materials, the biggest of which is the longevity of the parts. The valves are hermetically-sealed, so they have extremely high resistance to corrosion, abrasion, and chemicals, to stand up to the toughest water treatment challenges. The ball cores and seats are precisely ground in pair to ensure zero leakage. Each of the plastic options comes with a choice of connection between metric female thread and uPVC Glue and some of the valves are available in different grades of steel.