Valves & Pumps

Neles unveils new valve range

Neles’ versatile butterfly valve range

Neles, one of the leading providers of mission-critical flow control solutions and services for process industries, is introducing a new versatile butterfly valve product range that enables easy valve configuration for an extensive range of applications in all process industries.

With its proven technology and state-of-the-art functionality, the product range offers superior process efficiency with a minimised environmental footprint, the company said in a statement.

 

Easy valve selection

The new range combines 45 years of experience from thousands of customer applications into one, versatile solution.

Valve with 3D printed body

Valve with 3D printed body

“We wanted to make valve selection as easy as possible for our customers. With this range, customers can easily pick the features, functionalities, and materials they need to create a robust and reliable butterfly valve that meets their exact requirements,” said Taija Hämäläinen, Vice President of Butterfly Valves at Neles.

The modular butterfly valve range enables a vast number of configurations with Neles Neldisc metal seat and Jamesbury Wafer-Sphere soft seat.

The product platform offers reliable solutions for a wide range of applications, including a high-cycling valve to handle high-purity gases and valves for abrasive service or corrosive media. The cross-compatible components and standardised parts make it easy to upgrade valve performance without the need to replace the entire valve.

 

More sustainable ops

The versatile butterfly valve range offers longer lasting tightness, lower torque need, less wear and high flow rate – in other words, superior process efficiency and energy savings.

“Instead of focusing only on one maintenance interval, we wanted to think about the entire life cycle of the product. Along with high performance, the valves are also designed for maintenance, which means they are easy to put together and take apart. Serviceability increases the lifetime and safety of the valve and also minimises waste,” Hämäläinen noted.

The versatile butterfly valve range enables an immense number of configurations from Neles’ field-proven product families, Neles Neldisc metal seat and Jamesbury Wafer-Sphere soft seat.

 

First 3D printed valve body

Earlier, the company delivered its first valve with a 3D printed valve body for field testing. Except for the body, the valve is a standard T5-series ball valve made of stainless steel. It will be tested at Teollisuuden Voima’s power plant in Finland. The project is done in cooperation with Teollisuuden Voima and Fortum.

 

3D printing in industry

Neles is at the forefront of using 3D printing in valve applications. The company started testing the suitability of 3D printing technologies for metal components years ago and supplied the first valves with non-pressure retaining, 3D printed metal components in 2018.

“The valve body is a pressure-retaining component and thus its material properties need to be well known. However, industry standards for 3D printed materials are under development. It has been necessary to test the valve body material extensively, and, for example, the tensile strength and impact resistance to make sure it is safe and reliable in the process,” said Jukka Borgman, Director of Technology Development at Neles.

The field tests will provide a lot of valuable information on the feasibility of using 3D printing to produce pressure-retaining parts with significantly quicker delivery times. 3D printing also enables more efficient use of materials and optimised flow paths in noise attenuation trims, delivering superior performance compared to conventionally produced trims.

“3D printing can help us to optimise valves for customer-specific needs in various applications and with all valve types. These tests will also provide valuable information for our product development teams, as they are constantly looking for new ways to improve reliability, performance, and material efficiency,” Borgman added.