A Butterfly valve is a quarter-turn rotational motion valve, that is used to stop, regulate, and start flow. A butterfly valve has a disc which is mounted on a rotating shaft. When the butterfly valve is fully closed, the disk completely blocks the line. When the butterfly valve is fully opened, the disc is at a right angle to the flow of gas or liquid.

The butterfly valve consists of only four main components: body, disk, stem and seat.

Butterfly valve body: Butterfly valves generally have bodies that fit between two pipe flanges, the most common being lug and wafer body design.

Butterfly valve disk: The disk is how the valve stops flow – it is equivalent to a plug in a plug valve, a gate in a gate valve or a ball in a ball valve. There are variations in disk design and orientation in order to improve flow, sealing and/or operating torque.

Butterfly valve Stem: The stem of the butterfly valve may be a one-piece shaft or a two-piece (split-stem) design. The stem in most resilient seated designs is protected from the media, thus allowing an efficient selection of material with respect to cost and mechanical properties.

Butterfly valve Seat: The seat of a resilient-seat butterfly valve utilises an interference fit between the disk edge and the seat to provide shutoff. The material of the seat can be made from many different elastomers or polymers. The seat may be bonded to the body or it may be pressed or locked in.

Design of Butterfly Valves

Zero Offset Butterfly Valve:

Also known as a concentric design, this is common in general service ‘resilient seated’ or ‘rubber seated’ butterfly valves. The stem and disc are centered in the seat of the valve, all of which are centered in the body of the valve. The disc is in constant contact with the seat.

 An advantage of this valve is the media going through the valve will not contact the body, since the seat is constructed as a sleeve or cartridge inside of the body.

 Zero offset butterfly valves are used in basic and specialty liquid and gas applications up to 200 PSI and up to 400 deg F. The zero offset butterfly valve can handle chemicals, coatings, food, some solids, and abrasive applications.

The zero offset butterfly valve is available in epoxy coated cast iron and stainless steel with multiple seat materials such as Buna, EPDM,and others.