Difference Between Hard Seal and Soft Seal Butterfly Valve

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At DELCO, we understand the importance of customer satisfaction and strive to meet the unique needs of every client. As a reliable valve supplier, we are committed to providing excellent customer service and high-quality products to ensure optimal performance and longevity. By choosing DELCO as your trusted control air supplier, you can benefit from customized valve assemblies designed specifically to meet your requirements, enhancing efficiency and reducing downtime.

Difference Between Hard Seal and Soft Seal Butterfly Valve

According to the different materials of sealing surface, butterfly valve can be divided into hard seal butterfly valve and soft seal butterfly valve. They have significant differences in sealing performance, applicable environment, structural form and so on. In this article, DELCO Valve will share the differences between them.

Smart Electric Butterfly Valve

What is a Butterfly Valve?

Butterfly valve is a common device to control the flow of fluids in industrial pipelines, and its main role is to open and close or regulate the flow by rotating the valve plate.

Difference in Sealing Surface Material

The most essential difference between hard seal butterfly valve and soft seal butterfly valve is the material of sealing side. Hard seal butterfly valve sealing vice sides are usually composed of metal materials or harder materials, such as steel, copper, alloy steel and so on. They have better high temperature resistance and anti-wear characteristics. Can maintain good mechanical properties in high temperature, high pressure and other harsh environments, but its sealing performance is relatively poor.

The sealing side of soft seal butterfly valve is made of metal materials and elastic non-metallic materials (such as rubber, PTFE, etc.). The sealing performance of this kind of butterfly valve is better, and it can achieve the effect of zero leakage, which is suitable for the occasions requiring high sealing performance and room temperature environment. However, soft sealing materials are easily affected by high temperature, resulting in aging, wear and shorter service life.

Applicable Temperature and Pressure

Hard seal butterfly valves are suitable for low, normal and high temperatures, and can withstand large temperature changes. Due to its metal seal, the temperature resistance of hard seal butterfly valve is much better than that of soft seal butterfly valve, and it can work stably in medium and high pressure environments.

Soft seal butterfly valve is mainly used in room temperature environment, suitable for low pressure to normal pressure working conditions. Due to the characteristics of soft sealing materials, soft seal butterfly valve is not suitable for high temperature and high pressure working conditions, and prolonged exposure to high temperature environment may lead to seal failure.

Sealing Performance

Although the sealing performance of hard seal butterfly valves is relatively poor, they can usually operate in more severe working environments, such as high temperature and high pressure.

Soft seal butterfly valves perform better in sealing performance and can realize zero leakage. It is especially suitable for occasions with high sealing requirements, such as ventilation and dust removal pipelines, water treatment and other industries. Soft seal butterfly valve can effectively prevent media leakage, to protect the safe operation of the system. However, it has poor sealing performance in high pressure and high temperature environments, and is prone to leakage due to temperature or pressure changes.

Applicable Industries

Hard seal butterfly valve is suitable for some temperature and pressure higher environment, such as heating, gas supply, gas, oil transportation and acid and alkali and other chemical media transportation. Hard seal butterfly valve can withstand harsh working conditions, and has strong corrosion resistance.

Soft seal butterfly valve is mainly used in ventilation and dust removal, gas regulation, water treatment, light industry, petroleum, chemical and other industries. Soft seal butterfly valve is widely used in occasions with high requirements for sealing, especially in low temperature, normal temperature and low pressure environment with superior performance.

Service life

Due to the better abrasion resistance of hard seal materials (such as metal), hard seal butterfly valves have a longer service life. Especially in high temperature and high pressure environments it is more likely to take advantage of its long service life. Its only disadvantage is that the sealing performance is relatively poor, which may lead to leakage.

The sealing performance of soft seal butterfly valve is superior. However, because the sealing vice uses elastic non-metallic materials, its service life is shorter. It is easy to deteriorate due to environmental factors such as temperature changes, wear and tear, and other problems.

Conclusion

Understanding the differences between these two types of butterfly valves can help you choose the most appropriate butterfly valves for different working conditions, thus improving productivity and safety. If you need more information please feel free to contact DELCO.

At DELCO, we understand the importance of customer satisfaction and strive to meet the unique needs of every client. As a reliable control valve supplier, we are committed to providing excellent customer service and high-quality products to ensure optimal performance and longevity. By choosing DELCO as your trusted control valve supplier, you can benefit from customized valve assemblies designed specifically to meet your requirements, enhancing efficiency and reducing downtime.

Furthermore, our competitive pricing on electronic pressure regulators enables you to offer top-notch solutions. As one of the leading control valve manufacturers, we take pride in delivering reliable valves that not only meet industry standards but also contribute to the overall profitability of your business. By partnering with DELCO, you can have peace of mind knowing that you are making a wise choice for the long-term success of your company.

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