Why are people using gate valves for flow control?

No, gates are not used for throttling flows in other than aquarium situations. Faucets in your house are more like globe valves in older faucets and cartridge type valves similar to ball valves in newer faucets. You may have a gate valve on the incoming water line from your water meter but it is intended to be fully open or fully closed only for maintenance.
When you are under house or boosted pressure and throttle with a gate you are causing cavitation across the gate and seat areas due to the velocity and pressure drop. Say you have 60 psi on one side and an open pipe or hose on the other, the velocity across the small cross surface area that is open is sonic velocity and causes tremendous wear plus vibration between the gate and the threaded shaft which leads to more wear. In an aquarium we may have 4 feet of head (1.7 psi) to dissipate across one side to the other so wear is negligible. Its rare to find an aquarium pump that pumps more than say 15-16 feet of head or less than 7 psi and most are in the 11-12 feet of head range or about 5 psi, you can put your finger over the end of the pipe and stop the flow.

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IMO you and team should assess the pros and cons of using gate valve as &#;throttling function&#;. First understanding why you should not use gate valve, and use that screening methods to tune your expectation and mitigation:
-Opening gate more than 60-70 percent usually considered as full flow, as it is nearly impossible to exactly control the flow between this value and fully open. So use gate valve for opening less than 60%??? There are some factors to be considered as well
-Gate valve with small opening might induced vortex shading behind the wedge thus your spindle might vibrate and gland packing leakage.
-Gate valve with small opening might increase the velocity of product. Magic numbers of 8 m/s considered might start to erode the sealing element of the wedge. Any type (double expanding, wedge, or slab) will still suffer from this.Thus if you already have eroded wedge, then your gate valve in &#;close&#; position for sure will have internal leakage. Some application might requires less velocity to erode metallic components.

Your question &#;cost, ease in operation and longevity&#; are often contradict one another. If longevity meaning capability of fully close without any leakage? Then it is hard to justified. Which type will survive longer and seal better, requires trial and error and proper hard facing selection.
Ease in operation? Slab type have higher friction, thus might requires bigger (mechanical advantage) gearbox or actuator
Cost? Wedge type is the cheapest of all
For sacrificial method, usually Plants use wedge gate valve which often readily available.
For non-abrasive application, small numbers of manufacturer dare to design you a control gate valve.

regards,
MR

Hello,IMO you and team should assess the pros and cons of using gate valve as &#;throttling function&#;. First understanding why you should not use gate valve, and use that screening methods to tune your expectation and mitigation:-Opening gate more than 60-70 percent usually considered as full flow, as it is nearly impossible to exactly control the flow between this value and fully open. So use gate valve for opening less than 60%??? There are some factors to be considered as well-Gate valve with small opening might induced vortex shading behind the wedge thus your spindle might vibrate and gland packing leakage.-Gate valve with small opening might increase the velocity of product. Magic numbers of 8 m/s considered might start to erode the sealing element of the wedge. Any type (double expanding, wedge, or slab) will still suffer from this.Thus if you already have eroded wedge, then your gate valve in &#;close&#; position for sure will have internal leakage. Some application might requires less velocity to erode metallic components.Your question &#;cost, ease in operation and longevity&#; are often contradict one another. If longevity meaning capability of fully close without any leakage? Then it is hard to justified. Which type will survive longer and seal better, requires trial and error and proper hard facing selection.Ease in operation? Slab type have higher friction, thus might requires bigger (mechanical advantage) gearbox or actuatorCost? Wedge type is the cheapest of allFor sacrificial method, usually Plants use wedge gate valve which often readily available.For non-abrasive application, small numbers of manufacturer dare to design you a control gate valve.regards,MRAll valves will last for years, except the ones that were poorly manufactured; are still wrongly operated and or were wrongly selected

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