Like other mechanical products, valves also need maintenance. This work well, can extend the service life of the gate valve, the following will introduce the maintenance of the Gate valve.

1. Gate Valve storage and maintenance

The purpose of storage and maintenance is not to damage the valve or reduce the quality. In fact, improper storage is one of the important reasons for valve damage.
The Gate valves should be kept in good order. The small valves should be placed on the shelf. The large valves can be arranged in order on the ground of the warehouse. They should not be stacked disorderly. The flange connection surface should not contact the ground. This is not only for the sake of beauty, but also to protect the valve from damage.
Due to improper storage and handling, broken handwheel, crooked valve stem, loose nut between handwheel and valve stem, etc., these unnecessary losses should be avoided.
Asbestos packing should be taken out for valves not to be used for a short time to avoid electrochemical corrosion and damage of valve stem.
Check the valve just entering the warehouse. If there is rain or dirt in the process of transportation, wipe it clean and then store it.
The inlet and outlet of the valve should be sealed with wax paper or plastic sheet to prevent dirt.
The valve surface that can rust in the atmosphere should be coated with antirust oil for protection.
The outdoor Gate valves must be covered with rain proof and dust-proof materials such as linoleum or tarpaulin. The warehouse where the Gate valves are stored should be kept clean and dry.

2. Gate valves operation and maintenance

The purpose of operation and maintenance is to extend the service life of the valve and ensure the reliability of opening and closing.
Stem thread, often with the stem nut friction, to apply a little yellow dry oil, molybdenum disulfide or graphite powder, lubrication.
Do not often open and close the valve, but also regularly turn the hand wheel, add lubricant to the stem thread to prevent seizure.
For outdoor valves, theGate valves stem shall be protected from rain, snow, dust and rust.
If the Gate valves is mechanical, add lubricating oil to the gearbox on time.
Always keep the valve clean.
Always check and maintain the integrity of other parts of the valve. If the fixing nut of the hand wheel falls off, it should be matched and can not be used properly, otherwise it will grind the square on the upper part of the valve stem, gradually lose the reliability of matching, and even can not start.
Do not rely on the Gate valves to support other heavy objects, do not stand on the Gate valves.
The valve stem, especially the thread part, should be wiped frequently, and the lubricant that has been contaminated by dust should be replaced with a new one, because the dust contains hard debris, which is easy to wear the thread and the surface of the valve stem, affecting the service life.

3. Maintenance of valve packing

The packing is directly related to the key seal of valve leakage when opening and closing. If the packing fails, causing leakage, the valve will be equivalent to failure, especially the valve of urea pipeline, because of its high temperature, corrosion and easy aging of packing. Strengthening maintenance can prolong the life of packing.
When the valve leaves the factory, in order to ensure the elasticity of the packing, it is generally subject to the static pressure test without leakage. After the valve is installed into the pipeline, due to the temperature and other factors, the leakage may occur. At this time, the nuts on both sides of the packing gland should be tightened in time. As long as there is no leakage, the leakage can occur again in the future. Do not tighten it once, so as to avoid the loss of elasticity and sealing performance of the packing.
Some valve packing is filled with molybdenum disulfide grease. When it is used for several months, the corresponding grease should be added in time. When it is found that the packing needs to be supplemented, the corresponding packing should be added in time to ensure its sealing performance.

4. Maintenance of valve transmission parts

In the process of valve opening and closing, the original lubricating oil will be continuously lost. Coupled with the effect of temperature, corrosion and other factors, the lubricating oil will continue to dry up. Therefore, the transmission parts of the valve should be checked frequently, and the lack of oil should be added in time, so as to prevent the increase of wear due to the lack of lubricant, resulting in inflexibility of transmission or failure of case

5. Maintenance of valve during grease injection

When the Gate valves is greased, the amount of grease is often ignored. After the grease gun is filled with oil, the operator selects the valve and grease connection mode to carry out the grease injection operation. There are two situations: on the one hand, the amount of grease injection is less, and the sealing surface is worn faster due to the lack of lubricant. On the other hand, excessive fat injection causes waste. The reason is that there is no accurate calculation for the sealing capacity of different valves according to the valve type. The sealing capacity can be calculated according to the valve size and type, and then a reasonable amount of grease can be injected.
When the valve is greased, the pressure problem is often ignored. During the operation of fat injection, the pressure of fat injection changed regularly from peak to valley. If the pressure is too low, the seal leaks or fails, if the pressure is too high, the grease injection port is blocked, the grease in the seal is hardened, or the seal ring is locked with the valve ball and valve plate. Usually, when the grease injection pressure is too low, the injected grease flows into the bottom of the valve chamber, which usually occurs in small gate valves. On the one hand, check the grease nozzle, if the grease hole is blocked, judge the situation and replace it; On the other hand, it is the hardening of grease. It is necessary to use cleaning fluid to soften the failed sealing grease repeatedly and inject new grease for replacement. In addition, seal type and seal material also affect the grease injection pressure. Different seal forms have different grease injection pressure. Generally, the grease injection pressure of hard seal is higher than that of soft seal.

When greasing the valve, pay attention to the problem that the valve is in the on / off position. Ball valve maintenance is generally in the open state, special circumstances choose to close maintenance. Other valves can not be treated as open. The gate valve must be closed during maintenance to ensure that the grease fills the sealing groove along the sealing ring. If it is open, the grease will directly fall into the flow channel or valve cavity, causing waste.

When the Gate valves is greased, the effect of greasing is often ignored. During the operation, the pressure, amount and switch position were normal. However, in order to ensure the effect of valve greasing, sometimes it is necessary to open or close the valve, check the lubrication effect, and confirm that the surface of valve ball or ram is evenly lubricated.
Attention should be paid to the blowdown of valve body and the pressure relief of screw plug during grease injection. After the pressure test of the valve, the gas and water in the valve chamber of the sealing chamber will be increased due to the rise of the ambient temperature, and the blowdown and pressure relief should be carried out before the grease injection, so as to facilitate the smooth progress of the grease injection. The air and water in the sealing cavity are fully replaced after grease injection. The pressure of the valve chamber is released in time, which ensures the safety of the valve. After grease injection, the drain and pressure relief plugs must be tightened to prevent accidents.
When injecting fat, pay attention to the problem of even fat. During normal fat injection, the nearest fat hole to the fat injection port first gets fat, then goes to the low point, finally to the high point, and then gets fat one by one. If not in accordance with the law or not out of fat, prove the existence of blockage, timely clearing treatment.
When greasing, the valve diameter and sealing ring seat should also be observed. For example, for ball valve, if there is open position interference, the open position limiter can be adjusted inward, and it can be locked after confirming that the diameter is straight. The adjustment of the limit should not only pursue the position of the opening or closing side, but should be considered as a whole. If the opening position is flush and the closing position is not in place, the valve will not be closed tightly. In the same way, the corresponding adjustment of the opening position should also be considered when adjusting the closing position. Ensure right angle travel of the valve.
After the grease injection, the grease injection port must be sealed. Avoid impurities entering or lipid oxidation at the grease injection port. The cover shall be coated with anti rust grease to avoid rusting. So that it can be applied in the next operation.

When greasing, we should also consider the specific problems in the future oil sequential transportation. In view of the different quality of diesel and gasoline, the scouring and decomposition capacity of gasoline should be considered. In the later valve operation, in case of gasoline section operation, timely add grease to prevent wear.
When greasing, do not ignore the greasing of the valve stem. There is sliding sleeve or packing on the valve shaft, which also needs to be lubricated to reduce the friction resistance during operation. If the lubrication can not be ensured, the torque will be increased during electric operation, and the worn parts will be worn, and the switch will be laborious during manual operation.
Some ball valves are marked with arrows on the valve body. If there is no English fiow handwriting attached, it is the direction of action of the sealing seat, not as a reference for the flow direction of the medium. The direction of self discharge of the valve is opposite. In general, double seat sealed ball valve has two-way flow direction.
During valve maintenance, attention should also be paid to the problem of water inflow in the electric actuator and its transmission mechanism. Especially in rainy season. One is to rust the transmission mechanism or shaft sleeve, the other is to freeze in winter. When the electric valve is operated, the torque is too large, and the transmission parts will be damaged, which will make the motor no-load or over torque protection jump off, and the electric operation cannot be realized. The transmission parts are damaged, and manual operation cannot be carried out. After the over torque protection action, manual operation is also unable to switch, if forced operation, the internal alloy parts will be damaged.
Valve maintenance should be treated with a scientific attitude in order to achieve the desired effect and application purpose. In order to make the production run normally, reduce the shutdown and increase the economic benefits, we must do these three things well in the aspect of valves

Correct selection of valves is the foundation.
Correct use of the valve is the key.
Correct maintenance is the guarantee.