Process equipment essentials for a successful career start

Discover the working principles of valves, actuators, compressors, pumps, and distilling columns through graphics, cross-sectional views, and 3D animations, offering virtual practical exposure and a final knowledge quiz.

Explore pipe materials and their use in transporting liquids, gases, vapors, and powders. Focus on carbon steel as the most common piping material and its limitations.

Examine carbon steel pipe manufacturing methods—seamless, welded, and spiral welded—and how wall thickness, strength, and pressure limits differ, with ANSI B31 standards guiding quality and economy.

Understand pipe sizing by distinguishing nominal pipe size, outside diameter, and inside diameter; in process piping, uniform outside diameter with a variable inside diameter provides strength under temperature and pressure.

Explore pipe wall thickness via weight, schedule, and fractional systems, noting the outside diameter stays constant while the inside diameter changes, and apply ID = OD - 2x wall thickness.

Explore carbon steel pipe joining methods: welded, screwed, and socket weld. Learn bevel ends, root gaps, backup rings, and thread engagement to understand fit and length.

Explore the pipe schedule system and its wall thickness for nominal pipe sizes, using charts and tables to determine outside and inside diameters in inches and millimetres.

Join cast iron pipe with hub and spigot joints via compression seals or lead and oakum, and hubless couplings for leakproof, root-proof connections.

Learn how plastic pipe offers a safe, cost-effective alternative for piping systems, including fluoroplastics like PTFE and thermoplastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene, which can be welded or injection-molded.

Join plastic pipe by solvent cement or heat fusion, avoiding threading; solvent cement joints are reliable but non-disassemblable, while heat fusion suits thinner walls and butt or socket joints.

Identify the valve parts—body, bonnet, stem, actuator, packing, seat and disc—and describe the four basic types of flow control elements and how stem leakage is controlled.

Discover how valves regulate flow and pressure, including starting and stopping, varying and directing flow, and relieving overpressure, while examining body, bonnet, trim, actuator, packing, and designs.

Explains the valve body as the primary pressure boundary and the framework that holds the entire valve assembly together, detailing bolted, welded, or threaded connections and manufacturing considerations.

Explore how the valve bonnet covers the body and may support internals such as the stem, disc, and actuator, forming the second pressure boundary with bolted, threaded, or welded joints.

Explore valve trim components—disc, seat, stem, and sleeve—and how their interaction governs flow in rotational and linear motion designs, including annular orifices that enable flow control.

Learn how the disc acts as a pressure retaining boundary to control flow in valves. Explore seating surfaces and wear-resistant seal rings for effective sealing.

Explore valve stems, linking actuators to discs, and how rising and non rising stems position the disc, with forging, threaded or welded joints, and packing to prevent leakage.

Explore valve actuators and operation principles, with examples of hand wheel, motor, solenoid, pneumatic, and hydraulic operators, noting that actuators sit outside the pressure boundary except for hydraulically controlled valves.

Learn how to replace valve packing, using Teflon backing to seal the stem and bonnet, and tighten the packing gland to achieve correct compression and prevent leaks.

Learn how environments, system fluids, and conditions affect flow control by comparing valve designs and understanding how their differences influence function. Identify valve types and describe their applications and functions.

Explore how equipment comes in numerous sizes, styles, and pound ratings, and how socket weld, beveled, or flanged connections mate to flanges or pipes with raised or ring-type joint faces.

Explore how a gate valve acts as a linear motion valve to start or stop flow, not regulate it, with the disc removed when open and 360-degree seal when closed.

Globe valves are linear motion valves operated by a hand wheel to stop, start, and throttle flow with a disc and seat for effective throttling.

Explore ball valves, rotational motion valves that use a spherical ball to align a through-hole with inlet and outlet for on/off control, as demonstrated by a 3d animation.

Explore how a plug valve uses rotational motion to start or stop fluid flow, with a solid plug and a passage that aligns with inlet and outlet ports.

Pinch valves offer the simplest design with an external pinch mechanism and rubber sleeves for abrasion resistance, suitable for on-off and throttling control (10–95%) in slurries and corrosion-sensitive fluids.

Diaphragm valves are linear motion valves used to start, regulate, and stop fluid flow with moderate throttling in low pressure applications. They provide leak-tight operation and a smooth flow path.

Explore butterfly valves, a rotary motion valve that stops, regulates, and starts flow with 90-degree disc rotation, including wafer designs and advantages for large, low-pressure flows.

Needle valves enable gradual flow changes with a long tapered needle acting as the throttling disc. They include a handle, gland, packing, stem, and body.

Check valves prevent reverse flow by opening under fluid pressure and closing by gravity, back pressure, or spring, with types including swing, tilting, disc, piston, butterfly, and stop.

Explore swing check valves: full unobstructed flow, automatic closure to prevent backflow, low turbulence, and internal parts—disc hinge, disc, seat ring, and body with straight or Y-pattern designs.

Tilting disk check valves reduce fluid resistance with a straight-through design, resemble swing check valves, as the airfoil disc lifts off the seat to open and seals as flow reverses.

Lift check valves allow upward flow in horizontal or vertical piping and close on reverse flow; the disc rises to seal the seat, with metal or composition discs.

Explore butterfly check valves and their unobstructed disc movement. Note quiet operation, hvac applications, and diameters up to 72 inches.

Explore the stop check valve, a hybrid of a lift check valve and a stem-driven seal, which closes to seal and opens to perform as a lift check.

Explore globe valves for throttling control, their components and actuator-driven operation, and compare single-seat and double-seat two-port valves, highlighting balanced forces and shut-off concerns.

Explain how three port valves mix or divert flow using ports a, b, and ab, with a constant-volume output. Highlight piston, glow plug, and rotating shoe types and applications.

Explain how relief and safety valves prevent overpressure through different opening patterns, define actuating pressure set point and reset pressure, and note the external lever for safety valve checks.

Relief valves gradually lift as inlet pressure rises above set pressure to relieve excess pressure in liquids, unlike safety valves that pop open and stay open until reset.

Observe a relief valve in a 2d cross-sectional view, where the disc lifts above the set pressure to relieve excess pressure and maintain a constant system pressure.

Master valve operation in 3D to understand essential process equipment for a successful career start.

Explore how a pneumatic control valve throttles fluid flow by balancing signal pressure and spring pressure in a diaphragm actuator, enabling precise process control.

Choose valve direction of action based on instrument air failure, using air to close for direct acting or air to open for reverse acting to isolate reactors or distillation columns.

Explore manual actuators for valve control, including hand wheels, gearheads, and pinion-driven operation, address temperature-related binding, and learn how portable air motors speed large valve actuation.

Explore electric motor actuators for valve control, enabling manual, semi-automatic, and automatic opening, closing, or positioning, with a reversible high-speed motor, gear train, and a hand wheel.

Explore pneumatic actuators powered by gas pressure that drive linear and rotary valve movements, including single acting and double acting types, with fail open or fail closed options.

Explore a single acting spring return pneumatic actuator with body, position indicator, springs, and pistons, driving a butterfly valve; gas pressure rotates the valve, and springs close it when released.

Examine a double acting pneumatic actuator, showing how removing the spring converts a single acting unit to a two-inlet device that opens or closes a valve, including fail-as-is behavior.

Explore a double acting pneumatic actuator with two cylinders and four gas inlets, showing how opening and closing are controlled, and how the valve holds position on failure.

Convert a single acting spring return actuator to a double acting design with gas pressure on both sides of the piston to open and close a valve.

Learn to convert a fail-closed single-acting spring-return actuator to fail-open using the scotch yoke by rotating 180 degrees to reverse spring action and open the valve when gas is absent.

Learn to convert a fail closed rack and pinion opposed piston actuator to fail open by reversing pistons, reassembling springs, and reattaching the actuator.

Learn how hydraulic actuators use pistons and signal pressure to position valve stems, with fluid fed on both sides and controlled by solenoid or manual valves for semi-automatic operation.

Learn how remote valve position indication uses position detectors and lights to show open or closed valves, and how rising stem, hand wheel, and mechanical pointers convey local valve position.

Examine how steam traps discharge condensate without letting live steam escape, protecting efficiency and preventing damage, and review four types—float, thermostatic, thermodynamic, inverted bucket—based on density, temperature, and kinetic energy.

Discover how a flow-type float steam trap operates within a steam system, using a float and arm to open a discharge valve as condensate rises and closes as it falls.

Explain how a thermostatic steam trap uses a bellow to sense condensate temperature, cycling open and closed discharge valves to drain condensate.

Explore how thermodynamic steam traps use disk mechanics and flash steam to intermittently discharge condensate, balancing forces from high velocity below the disk and pressure above.

Explore inverted bucket steam traps, a density-operated, two-part mechanism that floats a bucket to open a discharge valve, venting air and condensate for intermittent condensate removal.

Protect equipment by using strainers to remove dirt and debris from piping systems, including startup protection upstream of pumps. Preview common strainer types and upcoming detailed coverage.

Explore how a wye strainer upstream of traps, control valves and instruments filters debris and protects downstream pumps and instruments.

Examine the basket strainer's internals and cross-sectional view, including duplex designs with parallel baskets and diverting valves; debris is filtered to protect downstream pumps and instruments.

Select valve type by power mode—self acting, electrical, pneumatic, or electro pneumatic—and ensure appropriate speed and accuracy, considering steam's two-port preference and liquids' two-port or three-port options and differential pressure.

Learn how to correctly select and install process control valves, ensuring proper size, pressure rating, materials, and connections, with upstream strainers, proper orientation, and bypass options for maintenance.