The Origin and Development for Valves

1. What are Valves

Valves are devices to control the flow and pressure, as a control part of pipeline transportation systems. The flow include liquid, gases, gas-liquid mixture or solid-liquid mixture. The control function base on the driving mechanism or fluid to make the headstock piece rising, sliding, swinging or turning so that can change the size of the flow area.

Valves are applicable in a wide range, from the simplest globe valves to those used for all kinds of complex automatic control systems. They are closely related to our daily life, such as faucets for water pipes, relief valves for liquefied petroleum gas stoves. Valves are also indispensable parts for kind of mechanical equipment such as internal combustion machines, steam machines, compressors, pumps, pneumatic transmission devices, hydraulic transmission device vehicles, ships and aircraft. For instance, there are types of valves used in ships and valves used in sewage treatment plant.

2. The birth of Valves

At the end of the Warring States Period, people made the primitive plunger valves to prevent brine leakage in order to make salt from salt wells

In the time of ancient Egypt and Greece, after developed complex water conservancy systems, the valves were upgraded to plug valves and plunger valves to prevent water's backflow.

During the time of the Renaissance, valves were used in ditches, irrigation projects and other large-scale hydraulic system projects designed by the famous engineer Leonardo Da Vinci, which made great contributions to the development of the valves.

3. The valves used in Industry

In 1769, Watt invented the steam engine so made the valves enter the field of machinery industry formally. On the steam engine, plug valves, safety valves, check valves and butterfly valves were widely used.

In the 18th-19th century, steam engines were widely used in Mining, Minerals, textile, machinery industry and etc. The request for valves' quantity and quality were increased day by day, so slide valves appeared. The globe valve with threaded stem and wedge gate valve with trapezoidal threaded stem was a major breakthrough in the development of valves. Those two types of valves not only met the various industries' requirements for the increase of pressure and temperature at that time but also initially met the requirements for flow adjustment. Since then, with the rise of the power generation, oil, chemical and shipbuilding industries, all kinds of high, medium pressure valves have developed rapidly.

After the Second World War, due to the development of some kind of special material like polymeric, lubricating, stainless steel and cobalt-based cemented carbide, the ancient plug valves and butterfly valves were used in new applications, ball valves and diaphragm valves which evolved according to plug valves developed rapid. The rising of variety and quality for valves such as Globe valves, gate valves and other kinds of, made the valves to be an important part of the machinery industry.

4. The development for China Valves Industry

From the 1970s, with the expansion of industrial production scale, some large petrochemical factory imported equipment with some control valves at same time, which guide the development direction for the domestic control valve manufactures.

From the 1980s, with our reform and open policy, the valves' production technology and quality improved rapidly. We produced a lot of kinds of sleeve valves, eccentric rotary valves, and began to develop fine and small regulating valves.

The 1990s was a period the economy developed rapidly, for the same time our regulating valves industry began to import and study other countries' advanced technology to fill the gap of some special industrial control. Which made our control valves industry improved a lot and shorten the gap with foreign countries.

The development of modern nuclear industry, petrochemical industry, electronic industry and aerospace industry, as well as the process of automatic control and long-distance fluid transportation development, promote the development of modern low-temperature valves, vacuum valves, nuclear industry valves and various regulating valves.  Valves actuation devices for remote control and program control are increasingly used.  

Since ancient times, the valves witnessed the changes for the times, the times also witnessed the valves development process from less to more, from simple to complex, from shallow to deep.  

For now, we have almost 6,000 large or medium-size valves companies in China, small-size companies are countless. Mstnland Group developed rapidly in recent years and will become a new force in the valves industry!

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