Flowrox releases new SKW valve

Flowrox has developed a new industrial valve for processing abrasive and corrosive substances. The new Slurry Knife Wafer (SKW) valve offers improved fluid control performance for mining, minerals and metallurgy. It has been designed to enhance current pipeline equipment and processes using enhanced technology for 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 main benefit to a full-bore design is that the SKW valve itself becomes an integral part of the pipe and allows it to process the same 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 a more efficient process, requiring less pumping energy to operate.

The SKW valve incorporates smart manufacturing techniques and incorporates a cast single-piece body, which eliminates any potential leak paths from the body and offers a versatile tower construction that will accept manual, electric, hydraulic or pneumatic forms of actuation. Flowrox is actively marketing the 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 offers the advantage of reducing the lowest total cost of ownership—a financial measurement that is often a deciding factor in the selection of these industrial products.

“Flowrox’s next-generation SKW valve offers great in-field flexibility since heavy duty rubber sleeves can be easily be replaced in the field without any special tools and is fully bi-directional,” said Todd Loudin, President/CEO at Flowrox Inc.

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

An added benefit is that when 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 due 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 due 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,” Loudin added to emphasise on the valve’s long-term value for the industries it serves.

The most significant feature are load distribution rings imbedded into the rubber ring sleeves–a feature that has been incorporated into the SKW valve design and completely eliminates the inherent problems of competitors’ products, where tight piping tolerances have caused the compression and destruction of the rubber sleeves.