Finding the Right Valve

Although Ultra Control Valves has a complete range of valve products to service the water and mining industries, the emphasis has always been on control valves. This is the area least understood by end-users and where UCV fulfils a niche requirement.

Water hammer

The destructive phenomenon of water hammer is one of the areas where UCV has extensive experience and where it has the right products to solve most problems. The right selection of items such as control valves, check valves, air valves and surge tanks plays a crucial role in solving water hammer problems and a complete arsenal of such products is available.

Final solutions with guarantees can be provided with proper analysis, using suitable software programmess. UCV has associate companies who are readily available to offer such assistance.

UCV has taken its water hammer solutions one step further by offering an ECSA-accredited course, entitled ‘Modern equipment options to reduce water hammer’, which offers 1 CPD point.

Water saving

UCV provides a range of products in the field of pressure management:

• The Ultra ACV pilot-operated pressure-reducing valve (PRV) can be used with electronic controllers to operate as a ‘smart’ control valve to change pressures in networks in relation to demand. This normally results in significant water savings.
• The Ultra ratio-reducing valve reduces pressure in a ratio (between upstream and downstream pressure) and operates completely without pilots. This valve has captured the imagination of users and engineers as a truly African solution, due to its simplicity. It can be used as a simple two-stage PRV by the addition of a ratio-reducing valve upstream of a pilot-operated PRV.

In pressure management where pressures are set lower during night-time, the addition of a ratio-reducing valve fitted with solenoid on the downstream side of a pilot-operated PRV can achieve this be simply activating the solenoid to bring the ratio-reducing valve into play at night and to reduce the pressure to a lower setting. During the daytime, the solenoid is deactivated to ensure that the ratio-reducing valve is fully open. Ultra ratio-reducing valves have made an impact in high-rise buildings, where it is the only type of PRV that can be used in series without any instability.

The Maric flow control valve is an innovative Austrailian product, which is made in South Africa by UCV. It has many uses and also brings about water savings in various applications. Pilot projects are currently in progress in water networks and high-rise buildings.

Ultra Control Valves prides itself in supplying the right valve for the application and has a field service team with experience to solve most problems. The team’s expertise is highlighted in a monthly newsletter, the content of which has received welcome attention and a growing database.?

You can join for free by subscribing on www.ultravalves.co.za under ‘Pete’s Valves and Hydraulics’ or by sending a request to [email protected].