Any production facility, municipal utility infrastructure, boiler house, sewage pumping station (SPS), or water supply station includes a system of technological pipelines designed for water supply, heat supply, as well as for the transportation or circulation of special fluids (including high-temperature thermal oil heat carriers and chemically active liquids such as acids, alkalis, etc.).

None of these systems can be imagined without shut-off and control valves — valves, gate valves, meters, solenoid valves, control valves, filters, and many other essential components.

Shut-off and control valves, in combination with pumping equipment and automation systems, are intended to ensure effective control of technological processes, as well as to enable scheduled and emergency maintenance of process equipment.

Like any equipment, shut-off and control valves require compliance with certain installation rules. We will not focus on special requirements for specific equipment such as ultrasonic meters or rotameters. In any case, nothing provides better guidance than the operating manual.

General basic requirements

• The nominal diameter of the valve should be selected based on hydraulic calculations and the technological purpose.
• The body of the shut-off or control device must not be subjected to torsional, tensile, bending, or compressive loads from connected pipelines, pumps, or heat exchange equipment.
• To protect valves, flow meters, ball valves, and other equipment sensitive to solid particles, filters should be installed upstream.
• To prevent vibration transmission to connected pipelines, anti-vibration inserts should be installed.
• For flanged connections, a washer must be installed between the nut/bolt head and the flange.
• The mating flanges of the pipelines must be parallel to the equipment flanges, and appropriate gaskets matching the parameters of the conveyed medium must be installed between the flanges.
• Never use shut-off valves as a fixing point or support for pipelines.

The photo shows an example of damage to a solenoid valve caused by violation of installation rules.

• The forces and moments acting on nozzles (fittings, flanges), for example due to twisting and/or thermal expansion, must not exceed the permissible values specified in the operating instructions. Excessive, unacceptable stress in the pipeline may lead to equipment damage.
• Thermal expansion of pipelines must be compensated using structural U-shaped compensators, angular bends, sliding supports, or special axial expansion joints.