Plastic Lined Industrial Valves in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania pickles stainless in nitric-hydrofluoric acid north of Pittsburgh, washes cracked gas with caustic in Beaver County, runs the largest coke works in the country at Clairton, refines crude at Trainer and makes medicines from King of Prussia to Chester County. Each of those services ends at a valve, where unlined metal fails first.
Marspec Technical Products supplies lined valves in every pattern a plant needs along with the lined spools we fabricate in Fairhope, Alabama, after more than half a century of plastic lined piping work. We supply Swissfluid PFA- and PTFE-lined valves and build automated valve packages in house; Swissfluid USA supports its national distribution network from its facility in Stafford, Texas. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online with your valve schedule.
Pennsylvania duties that call for a lined valve
Nitric-hydrofluoric pickling at the alloy mills
The stainless and specialty alloy mills in the Allegheny Valley, at Reading and at Latrobe pickle in a nitric and hydrofluoric mix that attacks stainless, glass and elastomers at once. A PFA-lined cylindrical plug valve, up to 6", carries the circulating acid with no cavity for scale to pack, lined ball valves isolate fresh acid and rinse, and lined diaphragm valves throttle the caustic that neutralizes spent bath. Carbon sheet pickled in hydrochloric acid at the Mon Valley and electric-arc mills uses the same valves.
Spent caustic and sulfuric acid at Trainer and Monaca
The refinery at Trainer and the ethane cracker at Monaca each have a caustic side and an acid side: caustic treating and wash towers make sulfidic spent caustic, alkylation and neutralization consume sulfuric acid, amine units circulate lean and rich amine, and the wastewater plants dose both. PFA lined ball valves give automated, bubble-tight isolation on caustic and acid transfer, lined checks protect the pumps, and lined plug valves sit on unloading racks and tank manifolds where a valve may stay shut for months and still has to turn.
Coke by-products in the Mon Valley
Clairton recovers the ammonia in coke oven gas as anhydrous ammonia, about 50 tons a day, and strips benzene from the gas with wash oil. The ammonia liquor, absorber solution and acid and caustic make-up around that recovery go on lined plug, ball and diaphragm valves, with the cavity-free plug on liquor that carries tar and salts. Lined sampling valves let operators draw liquor for analysis without a splash.
Pharmaceutical purity around Philadelphia
Greater Philadelphia's pharmaceutical and cell and gene therapy plants, concentrated in Montgomery and Chester counties, run deionized water, buffers, solvents and clean-in-place acid and caustic, and a lined valve adds no iron to any of them. PFA lined diaphragm valves with a drainable weir and no packing gland, lined sampling valves with no dead leg, and PFA lined ball valves on solvent transfer suit those plants. Many of those solvents can build a static charge that pinholes a plain lining or ignites vapor, so bond and ground the spools and use anti-static PFA-AS valves; tell us if your specification calls for an anti-static liner. The bleach plants at Johnsonburg and Spring Grove, demineralizer regeneration at the power stations and hypochlorite and ferric chloride feeds at the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh water utilities draw on the same catalog.
What is in the lined valve line
Sizes and ratings are on our plastic lined valves page, and sizes vary by pattern: ball valves 1/2" through 10", plug valves 1/2" through 6", diaphragm valves 1/2" through 8", butterfly valves 1" through 42", ball check and sampling valves 1/2" through 6", and swing check valves 1-1/2" through 24". Ball, plug and diaphragm valves are PFA-lined and the butterfly PTFE-lined, all with Class 150 flanges and pressure set by each valve's pressure-temperature rating (ball and plug valves to 232 psi, diaphragm valves lower, 73 psi at 8").
Butterfly valves
The economical choice for 1" through 42" rinse, filtrate, dilute acid and brine lines: PTFE-lined body, PFA encapsulated disc, wafer or lug pattern.
Ball valves
PFA lined ball valves, quarter-turn and bubble tight with a bore that drains, for acid and caustic transfer and the automated block valves around unloading.
Plug valves
PFA-lined cylindrical plug valves, 1/2" through 2" full port and 3" through 6" reduced port, are cavity-free, with no in-line adjustment, so ammonia liquor salts and pickle scale cannot pack them, and they turn at low torque.
Diaphragm valves
PTFE faced diaphragm valves with a PFA-lined body and weir keep stem and bonnet out of the fluid, drain fully and throttle well, as pharmaceutical and neutralization duties both want.
Sampling valves
Lined sampling valves take a representative draw with no dead leg and no exposure, on coke plant ammonia liquor or a biologics buffer.
Check valves
Lined ball and disc check valves stop backflow into acid, caustic and hypochlorite pumps with no metal in the stream.
Automation packages
Refinery block valves, coke plant ammonia recovery valves and pharmaceutical CIP valves all run from a control system, so we assemble the automated package in-house: pneumatic or electric actuator, positioner, limit switches and solenoid mounted on the lined valve, stroked and tested on our bench before it ships as one tagged assembly. See our services page.
Fitting the valve to the lined line
A lined valve and a lined spool are one system, so we quote them together: lined pipe spools fabricated to your isometric and lined fittings to match, 1/2" through 12", PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene lined, in carbon steel or 304/316 stainless, all flanged to ANSI B16.5. Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545, lined fittings are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX, and each lined pipe spool and fitting is spark tested at a minimum of 10,000 volts. Our Pennsylvania lined pipe page covers the spools, the technical details page has bolt torques and liner limits, and lined strainers and expansion joints from our piping accessories line finish the run.
Serving Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and the state between
Spools and valves ship from Fairhope, Alabama, with service to Philadelphia, Chester, Marcus Hook, King of Prussia, Allentown, Bethlehem, Reading, Lancaster, Harrisburg, York, Scranton, Williamsport, Johnstown, Pittsburgh, Clairton, Monaca, Butler, Latrobe and Erie. Send the media, concentration, temperature, pressure and size, and the job the valve does; call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online to start.
FAQ: Plastic Lined Industrial Valves in Pennsylvania
What lined valve do you recommend for nitric-hydrofluoric pickling acid at a Pennsylvania stainless mill?
A PFA-lined cylindrical plug valve on the circulating acid and lined ball valves for isolation. The fluoropolymer resists both the oxidizing nitric and the fluoride attack that defeat stainless and glass, and the plug pattern has no cavity for scale to collect. HF permeates fluoropolymers even at ambient temperature, so send us the bath temperature and we will confirm the lining.
Which lined valves fit spent caustic and sulfuric acid service at Trainer or the Beaver County cracker?
PFA lined ball valves for automated isolation, lined check valves at the pumps and lined plug valves on unloading and tank manifolds. Sulfidic spent caustic and 98 percent sulfuric acid both sit inside the lining's rating at transfer temperatures, and the carbon steel bodies take Class 150 flanges, with pressure per each valve's pressure-temperature rating, to 232 psi for ball and plug valves.
Do lined valves meet the purity needs of Philadelphia-area pharmaceutical plants?
Yes. PFA lined diaphragm valves drain fully, have no packing gland to shed particles and add no metal ions to deionized water, buffers or solvents, and lined sampling valves draw a batch sample with no dead leg. Both are common in the region's API and cell therapy facilities.
Can you supply an automated lined valve for a coke plant ammonia recovery unit or an acid unloading rack?
We can. We mount the pneumatic or electric actuator, positioner, limit switches and solenoid on the lined valve in our shop and test the assembly before shipment, so it arrives as one tagged unit ready to wire and pipe.