Ball Valve Seat Design Features - Self Relieving Seats vs Double Piston

Effect Seats

Piston -Action Seats

As lin e pressure in creases the seat reacts to the force of the pressure to form an
effective seal. In the absen ce of lin e pressure, coil sprin gs behin d the seat provide a
tigh t seal by keepin g the seat in con tact with the ball surface. In depen den t floatin g
sprin g loaded seats are always in con tact with the ball to provide an effective tight
seal even at low differen tial pressure. In depen dent upstream an d down stream seats
perm it drain in g of fluid from th e body cavity, so allowin g double block an d bleed
operation (closed position on ly). With the option al sin gle sealin g feature, there is
autom atic body cavity release of over pressure to the lin e through the down stream
seat.

Self r elievin g seats (stan dar d)

In self relievin g con dition , excessive intern al body pressure is autom atically
relieved both upstream an d down stream in to th e lin e by excessive pressure forcin g
th e seats away from th e ball.

Dou b le p iston effect (DPE) seats

With th e ‘DPE’ seat option , if a leakage occurs in the upstream seat, the pressure
en terin g the body cavity push es the down stream seat again st the ball an d valve
seals. Lin e pressure forces a seal again st th e floatin g seat.

An extern al body relief valve is in stalled to protect the body cavity from excess
pressure which can be ven ted to atm osphere or recycled back to th e upstream side
of th e valve or to flare.

Double Piston Effect Ball Valve, A double piston effect seat, is a seat design,
where the location of the seals on the back side of the seat are located in such a
way that the seat can use pressure from either the pipeline or the valve cavity as a
source of pressure to provide a piston force.

Double Piston Effect

Double piston effect seats are pressure energized to be pushed against the bal in
both direction. Each seat will be sealed against the ball independantly for the the
fluid comes from upstream and downstream.
If upstream seat fails, downstream seat can still ensure valve sealing. Interesting in
specific applications (high integrity required) or for some pipe testing issues during
construction.
Valve with DPE seats cannot perform cavity relief. They will not release valve body
cavity overpressure, a pressure relief design shall be added then.