The traditional actuator’s tower design usually works well with slurry knife gate valves. But only as long as the valve is small enough. The bigger the DN, the higher will be the valve. Let us say we need a valve DN 1200. Using the tower design, it means the valve would be extremely high in open position: 5,60 meters! Extreme heights also mean a higher centre of gravity. This makes the knife gate valve more difficult to handle, less stable during assembly, and harder to access for maintenance. In other words, less safe.
Flowrox Slurry Knife Gate valves use a different approach for sizes from DN 900 to impressive DN 1500. The innovation brought by Flowrox eliminates the knife gate valve’s cylinder tower and instead repositions two actuator cylinders to each side of the valve. According to the example above, Flowrox DN 1200 knife gate valve now measures 3,60 meters in a fully open position 2 meters less.
Heavily reduced height of the valve means the centre of gravity is positioned lower. Therefore, the knife gate valve is more stable and safer. It is not only easier to install, but also requires much less empty room above the valve. All maintenance access points are situated below 2 meters from the ground making them easily accessible. Similarly, all other connections can be done on or from the ground instead of high in the air. In the case of tower design, the service work typically needs to be done 3-4 meters above the ground, causing a safety risk, requiring additional safety procedures and consuming more time.
