Fire Safe Ball Valve

A fire-safe design for a ball valve is a design that ensures the material and the structure of the ball valve can pass a fire test with limited leakage to the atmosphere and downstream after a certain period of fire exposure. This kind of valve we use because of the possibility of hazardous or flammable fluid leakage from the valve during a fire event.

A fire-safe design for a ball valve is a design that ensures the material and the structure of the ball valve can pass a fire test with limited leakage to the atmosphere and downstream after a certain period of fire exposure.

Ball valve fire safe design from the standpoints of internal and external leakage prevention.

For internal leakage prevention, the upstream pressure will push the ball to the downstream metal seat to cut off medium and prevent internal leakage when the soft seat is destroyed because of the fire. In addition, a fireproof packing of graphite at the metal seat ring can also prevent internal leakage.

For external leakage prevention, there will be two layers of sealing at all the possible external leakage points between stem & gland flange, gland flange & body, and body & adapter. One is an O-ring, and the other is a graphite gasket. The secondary graphite gasket will prevent external leakage when the O-ring seal is burnt.

The fire safety test, as conducted by TÜV SÜD, ensures that the valves demonstrate minimal leakage and can still be operated in case of fire. The valves are placed under pressure (75% of the max. working pressure) with water, and must withstand a fire (temperatures between 750 – 1000°C) for 30 minutes.

API 6FA Certificate for Ball Valves