Comments on: DIY actuated ball valve

By: Ball Valves

Ball Valves — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:39:52 +0000

Actuators are used for the automation of industrial valves and can be found in all kinds of technical process plants: they are used in waste water treatment plants, power plants and even refineries.

By: china valve

china valve — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:42:16 +0000

wow.so deeply felt. thanks for you thanks. They- the one:ball valve , globe valve,need make efforts to research it.

By: Ramdayal

Ramdayal — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:38:53 +0000

I also have same products blog, so if some one intrested in more info of valves, then please visit given blog, for lot of diffrent types of valves.

By: biodiesel processor

biodiesel processor — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:26:28 +0000

Very cool, I build biodiesel processors which turn waste vegetable oil into biodiesel. It is really amazing how simple the process is, as well as saving the customer $2-3 per gallon at the pumps. Algae biodiesel looks even more promising. As the other poster said, we just need to keep moving in the right direction.

By: Derek White

Derek White — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:29:02 +0000

I would be glad to take more pics, what do you want to see better on the valve ? I also posted a video of it in operation. I got the valve at a Big R, its a farm supply store, I dont see a name on the valve but it should be similar to http://www.jmesales.com/item/32174/banjo-polypropylene-bolted-ball-valves.aspx

By: Purdue_Engr

Purdue_Engr — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:28:45 +0000

Derek,

Very interesting project. Could you post some more pictures of your valve? Also, where did you get it/Who made the valve? I'd love to get the specs.

Thanks,
Pat

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:12:40 +0000

Happy Birthday!!!

How old are you?

By: MacGyver

MacGyver — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:39:59 +0000

Frogz -

The issue isn't with the ball valve, the issue is with the 'hacked' together actuated piece. If the motor fails, or the controller fails, or if a short gets into the system (and it can), the ball valve might not open when it's supposed to. If this were high pressure, that would be scary. Luckily, the hacker knows what he's doing and won't be doing anything crazy with it.

I'm sure the ball valve is a wonderful piece of engineering, -the problem is that it is being controlled by a salvaged piece of equipment-.

"Should" is not a word that is used in process control. "Should" costs millions of dollars in damages and could kill people. "Should" causes disasters like the Texas City Refinary incident, the Tacoma Narrows brigde collapse, and the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster.

I really need to stop coming back to this thread.

Mac

By: Gigawatts

Gigawatts — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:44:20 +0000

Hey! February 3rd is a good birthday! ;) I too aged a year on the 3rd. Hope you had fun!

By: Derek White

Derek White — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:34:20 +0000

I understand what you mean completely people arnt to smart some times, Im a mechanic by profession and seeing some of the things people do when they try to fix there own cars just makes you want to pull your hair out.
no hard feelings just wanted to clarify things

By: MacGyver

MacGyver — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:17:38 +0000

I stand corrected, you are not a joker, you know what you are doing. Sounds like you thought this through a lot more than what the pictures depict.

Yes, I'd hope that another person who built a contraption like this would know better than to use it without any safety precautions. However, America is the culture that invented the slip and slide, the dvd-rewinder, and the non-locking pocket knife, so forgive my initial scepticism?

Mac

By: Derek White

Derek White — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:39:55 +0000

A plastic valve should never be used for high pressure systems, thats kinda a obvious thing I would think, but as for a fail safe this valve does have one, I need to get a write up i guess so things are more clear, the 2 micro switches on the valve not only limit the travel of the motor but also tell the computer running the hole processor that the valve did or didnt make a full cycle, and the computer would shut the system down and tell which valve failed to move seems like a pretty effective fail safe to me nothing blowing up or burning. For my processor a poly valve is perfect, in other cases a brass or stainless valve may be a better choice just like anything else choose what fits the job best. On a high pressure system I would hope people would be smart enough to build in some kind of pressure relief valve so things dont blow up

By: andres

andres — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:25:40 +0000

happy b-day

By: Frogz

Frogz — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:23:21 +0000

argh someone beat me to the cake is a lie, to twenty one, it is no more dangerous than the parts that went into it, a high quality ball value wont suddenly fail under rated pressure. the motor should be strong enough to move it comment made through opera mini on a phone yay. i wonder how many entrys site stats have for om…

By: Derek White

Derek White — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:19:03 +0000

Once I get the bio processor all put together Ill write up a page all about it and Ill take pictures of it in the process of being put together, I will also take pictures of the next valve I make, I still need 4 more. Submitting to hackaday was an afterthought so I didnt take pictures of the valve when I was making it