The working principle of a three-way ball valve is to rotate the valve to make the valve open or closed. Ball valves are lightweight, small in size, and can be made into large diameters. They are reliable in sealing, have a simple structure, and are easy to maintain. The sealing surface and spherical surface are often in a closed state, and are not easily eroded by media. They are widely used in various industries.

Three way ball valves are mainly used in pipelines to cut off, distribute, and change the flow direction of the medium. Three way ball valve is a relatively new type of ball valve, which has some unique advantages of its own structure, such as no friction on the switch, less wear on the seal, and small opening and closing torque. This can reduce the specifications of the equipped actuator.

Three way ball valves are available in T and L shapes. T-shaped pipes can connect and cut off the third channel of three orthogonal pipes, playing a role in diversion and convergence. The L-shaped three-way ball valve can only connect two orthogonal pipelines and cannot maintain the interconnection of the third pipeline at the same time. It only plays a distribution role.

Ball valve and gate valve belong to the same type of valve, with the difference being that their closing member is a sphere, which rotates around the centerline of the valve body to achieve opening and closing. Ball valves are mainly used in pipelines to cut off, distribute, and change the flow direction of the medium. Ball valve is a widely used new type of valve, which has the following advantages:

1、 The characteristics of three-way ball valves
1. The fluid resistance is small, and its resistance coefficient is equal to that of a pipe segment of the same length.
2. Simple structure, small size, and light weight.
3. Tight and reliable, the sealing surface material of the ball valve is widely used in plastic, with good sealing performance, and has also been widely used in vacuum systems.
4. Easy to operate, quick to open and close, with only a 90 ° rotation from full open to full close, facilitating remote control.
5. Easy to maintain, the ball valve has a simple structure, and the sealing ring is generally movable, making disassembly and replacement more convenient.
6.When fully open or fully closed, the sealing surfaces of the ball and valve seat are isolated from the medium. When the medium passes through, it will not cause erosion of the valve sealing surface.
7. It has a wide range of applications, with diameters ranging from a few millimeters to several meters, and can be applied from high vacuum to high pressure.

2、 Working principle
A. Opening process
1. In the closed position, the ball is subjected to mechanical pressure from the valve stem and tightly pressed against the valve seat.
2. When the handwheel is turned counterclockwise, the valve stem moves in the opposite direction, and its bottom angular plane causes the ball to detach from the valve seat.
3. The valve stem continues to lift and interacts with the guide pin in the spiral groove of the valve stem, causing the ball to start rotating without friction.
4. Until it reaches the fully open position, the valve stem is lifted to the limit position, and the ball rotates to the fully open position.

B. Closing process
1. When closed, rotate the handwheel clockwise to lower the valve stem and allow the ball to rotate away from the valve seat.
2. Continuing to rotate the handwheel, the valve stem is subjected to the action of a guide pin embedded in its spiral groove, causing both the valve stem and the ball to rotate 90 degrees simultaneously.
3. As it was about to close, the ball had already rotated 90 ° without contact with the valve seat.
4. In the final few turns of the handwheel rotation, the angular plane at the bottom of the valve stem mechanically wedges against the pressure ball, tightly pressing it against the valve seat to achieve complete sealing.

3、 Installation and maintenance precautions
1. Leave a position for the valve handle to rotate.
2. Cannot be used for throttling.
3. Ball valves with transmission mechanisms should be installed upright.