The Current Situation of the Valve

A valve is an important fluid control device in the industry, involving all walks of life, especially petroleum and petrochemical, liquid transportation and other industries. The emergence of CAD parameterization technology and CAE technology has played a great role in promoting the design and research of valves.
 
Characteristics and types of valves 
Valves are widely used. In a complete set of large mechanical equipment, the investment in valves accounts for 2% to 6%. There are many types of valves and they have great functions. The performance and quality of valves have an important impact on the normal operation of the entire conveying device or working condition system. Valves can be roughly divided into 3 categories according to their functions and uses, as shown in Table 1.
 
Table 1 Types, functions and uses of valves

 
The status and development trend of foreign valves
Before 1950, many foreign countries had established valve design units and production industries. In addition, some associations and academic organizations are formed to carry out technology exchanges, design and research analysis of valves, such as the former Soviet Union's research institute, the valve industry alliance established by the United States and the United Kingdom, and the valve industry association of Japan.
 
These organizations and technical development departments mainly complete the technical innovation, research and development of valves through two modes. One is the centralized mode. The Central Research Institute completes the compilation of specifications, the standardized design and production of valves, and the testing of new products and new processes. The other mode is to carry out research and analysis for the new products and markets of the company, starting from the actual production and demand based on the purpose of improving performance, safety, service life, high parameters, and harsh working conditions. In addition, the research department also has a testing center, which can test the performance of new products at any time, and propose improvement plans for materials and manufacturing processes; these have promoted the development of the valve industry.
 
The status and development trend of domestic valves
In recent years, China has established a relatively complete production and operation system in the field of valves, and analysis methods such as finite element have improved the design capabilities of valves. However, there are still manufacturing problems and domestic production has not been achieved for dedicated valves such as valves with large diameters and nuclear power valves.
 
At present, there is a certain gap between the industrial structure and product structure of domestic valves compared with developed countries. In order to improve the overall production efficiency and technical level of the valve industry, we must pay attention to the research and development of new technologies, design of diversity, and research of basic theory, increasing capital investment, introducing advanced computing technology, improving testing and inspection standards of valves and researching on valves with high parameters and high performance.