While choosing a particular valve there are two important considerations – quality and safety. Without the first, the valve may never effectively do what it was bought to do, but without the latter the effect can be disastrous – often running into millions of Euros.
Cryogenic valves are very similar to conventional valves, with the exception of materials and features such as an extended stem. These extended stems allow handles or actuators to be at an ambient temperature.
Stainless steel and copper alloys are used for most parts of the valves, especially pressure boundaries, though other stainless steels are used, including the precipitation hardened and martensite stainless steels. The cost of the material is generally outweighed by the cost of machining in most cases.
Cryogenic valves normally refer to valves with working temperature below -110°C, widely used in industrial gas, LNG, LPG and other low temperature applications and regulating or controlling the flow of cryogenic gases, slurries or liquids at low temperatures. These valves come in different shapes and sizes so that they can handle different pressures required by various applications. Some of the common types of cryogenic valves are butterfly valves, relief valves, ball valves and solenoid valves. The user can manually operate or automate cryogenic valves to handle large systems.
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