Heavy-duty industrial valve manufacturing and services company Flowrox, at the end of last year, launched a new slurry knife gate valve designed to enhance current pipeline equipment and processes through improved fluid control technology.

The new slurry knife wafer (SKW) valve was developed for use in the oil and gas, mining, minerals and metallurgy, power and wastewater industries, where abrasive or corrosive slurries, powders or coarse substances are processed.

Based on three decades of experience and strong understanding of industrial fluid control, Flowrox has engineered its SKW valve at full bore with no flow restrictions, allowing processes with abrasive or corrosive fluids – such as lime slurry or mineral slurries – to move without compromising performance.

The company points out that the main benefit to a full-bore design is that the SKW valve itself becomes an integral part of the pipe enabling it to process fluids in the harshest of conditions.

In addition to its strength and resistance to aggressive slurries, Flowrox’s new SKW valve is designed as a full port fluid control device that allows for a more efficient process, requiring less pumping energy to operate.

The SKW valve incorporates smart manufacturing techniques and a single-piece cast body, eliminating any potential leak paths from the body and offering a versatile tower construction that will accept manual, electric, hydraulic or pneumatic forms of actuation.

Flowrox is actively marketing its SKW valve to all major mining and power plants in North America that manage fluid control processes and require precision and performance directly related to revenue generation.

Incorporating Flowrox’s SKW valves offer the advantage of reducing the lowest total cost of valve ownership – a financial measurement that is often a deciding factor in the selection of these industrial products.

Flowrox’s SKW valve offers proprietary and innovative sleeves with load distribution rings incorporated within, along with a robust valve structure.

The load distribution rings completely eliminate the inherent problems of competitors’ products, where tight piping tolerances have caused the compression and destruction of the rubber sleeves.

“The next-generation SKW valve also offers great in-field flexibility since heavy-duty rubber sleeves can be easily replaced without any special tools and is fully bidirectional,” says Flowrox president and CEO Todd Loudin.

An added benefit is that, when the valve is in the “open position”, the SKW valve’s rubber ring sleeves are the only parts in contact with the medium as a way to reduce any potential corrosion or deterioration owing to wear and tear, even when processing the most abrasive slurries.

In contrast, older slurry gate valves fail to incorporate the latest design efficiencies, leading to jamming or clogging and thus resulting in costly repairs or decommissioning of a pipeline owing to valve damage, as well as a financial challenge to equipment managers.

“The SKW valve is guaranteed a long operational lifetime and it is a product that our clients can depend on when they need it most,” adds Loudin.