What is A Plug Valve ?

- A plug valve is a valve with cylindrical or conically tapered “plugs” which can be rotated inside the valve body to control flow through the valve.

- Shaped like a cone or cylinder, a plug valve uses a rotating plug inside the body of a valve to control fluid flow (see the image above). These types of valves have one or more horizontal passageways to allow flow through the valve when open. Plug valves are often used to move liquids or gases, but rarely if ever used to move solids. They typically have two ports but can also have three or more depending on the application.

Structure of Plug Valve

Technical Plug Valve

Types of Plug Valves

• Lubricating Plug Valve

• Non-Lubricating Plug Valve

• Multi-Port Plug Valves

• Eccentric Plug Valve

• Expanding Plug Valve

How Does A Plug Valve Work

• Two-Way Plug Valve

• Three-Way Plug Valve

Application of Plug Valve

Advantages of Plug Valve

- Plug valves have simple design with few parts.

- Plug valves open and close easily (except large dimensions).

- Maintenance and repair of plug valves can be done at the place of operation.

- Plug valves have low flow resistance.

- Plug valves provide reliable leak-proofness.

Disadvantages of Plug Valve

- Because of high friction, first movement (opening-closing) requires a large amount of force.

- NPS 4 (DN100) and larger plug valves require a gearbox or an actuator.

- Plug valve transitions are narrowing flows due to conic plug.

- Generally, plug valves costs are much larger than ball valves.