Nor-Cal Products’ manually and pneumatically operated ball valves are an excellent choice for use in MOCVD, CVD, and Epi processing environments. Vacuum deposition applications such as these are creating more demanding needs for isolation valves due to chemistries that tend to deposit process by-products in the pump foreline and down-stream components. As a means of mitigation, equipment designers and users are finding that ball valves are a low-cost and very robust solution to vacuum isolation in these high deposit areas.
A ball valve’s simple, robust design provides high reliability in “dirty” applications. The stainless steel body and Teflon seats make these valves ideal for corrosive environments. The smooth continuous flow path when the valve is open reduces surface area onto which by-product can collect. And, the sealing surface area is always protected from direct line-of-sight to the process flow. A quarter-turn of the handle quickly switches the valve from open to close. Nor-Cal’s BVM and BVP-series ball valves are available in five different body sizes with a range of end flange choices. Customer-specific flange arrangements and combinations are also available upon request, as are a variety of O-ring seal types.