High-Pressure vs. Low-Pressure Ball Valves

Valves are available with a wide variety of valve bodies in various styles, materials, connections and sizes. The most common types are ball valves, which can be of high and low pressure, depending on the application. Utilizing Oliver’s unique design’s we are able to produce these in either full or reduced bore, threaded or flanged, in a range of materials suitable for a wide range of demanding isolation applications and media.

​As opposed to the Oliver low-pressure ball valves, the high-pressure ball valves are typically used to withstand high operating pressures and they keep streams of fluid under control whilst safely isolating or allowing the system fluid to pass through.

At Oliver Valves, we are one of the worlds leading manufacturers of instrumentation valves; we can implement solutions thanks to our history of cutting-edge control technology in the industry. Before looking at the difference between High-Pressure and Low-Pressure Ball Valves, we must ask ourselves, what is a Ball Valve?

Ball Valves

The Oliver Ball valves operate in a quarter turn to action, which provides a quick opening & closing giving whilst providing a zero leakage bubble-tight shutoff; when fully closed. When open a ball valve creates little turbulence or resistance to flow, due to its smooth through bore. The valve stem rotates a ball that contains an opening; the ball opening can be positioned in the fully open or fully closed position. It must not be used to throttle flow as any abrasive wear to the ball will cause leakage when the valve is closed. Ball valves are considered high recovery valves, having a low-pressure drop and relatively high flow capacity. At Oliver Valves, valves are our specialty; here are the advantages of ball valves.

• Low cost
• High flow capacity
• High pressure/temperature capabilities
• Low leakage and maintenance
• Tight sealing with low torque
• Easy quarter-turn operation
• Fully traceable parts
• CNC Super Finished screw cut threads
• Extensive range covering 1,000, 3,000, 6,000 & 10,000 PSI
• Manual or actuation operation
• Full or reduced bore

Why Use a Ball Valve?

Oliver’s ball valve is known for its quality, durability, simplicity, and excellent sealing properties and they provide excellent shutoff even after years of service. This makes the Oliver ball valve an excellent choice as a shut-off valve; due to its design, they also provide better resistance to contaminated materials than other valves.

High-Pressure Ball Valve

High-pressure ball valves are designed to operate in a fully open and fully closed position. High-Pressure Ball Valves are suitable for installing piping systems with connections at the same pressure load and corresponding connections or between flanges of the same pressure load and flange connection.

​A high-pressure Ball Valve provides an unrestricted flow of fluids and a way to shut off that flow using the attached handle or actuator. ​High-pressure ball valves are used in systems that demand reliable shut-off power. Some fields of application are:

• Hydraulics system
• Chemical and petrochemical industry
• Off-shore, water, high-pressure cleaning systems.
• Mining Industry
• Agricultural machinery
• Gas pipelines
• Hydrogen fuelling systems

Low-Pressure Ball Valves

Ball valves take a leading role in the valve industry as the scope of application is enormous. Low-pressure ball valves are mainly used for critical applications with demanding requirements; they are highly used for the smooth working of water, oil and gas systems.

A low-pressure ball valve can be divided into a full bore ball valve and a reduced bore ball valve based on the flow of passage formed.

Low-Pressure ball valves are widely leveraged for water, general oil and gas applications.

If you would like more information about the ball valves we supply, please contact Oliver Valves today.