Having a ball with valves

Parker Hannifin and Mueller Industries have new ball valves for transcritical CO₂ systems. Parker Hannifin and Mueller Industries have introduced ball valves for transcritical CO₂ systems that include unprecedented features. Parker’s EBV(T)-PR ball valve with integrated pressure relief – rated at 70 bar and available up to 1-1/8 in. in diameter – comes with a check valve built into it, so that an outside check valve is not needed. “[The ball valve] can be used to isolate the evaporator,” said Dustin Searcy, product manager – electric valves for Parker Hannifin’s Sporlan division. “You would want one in the suction line and one in the liquid line. They both open if the pressure in the [evaporator] increases by five pounds above the pressure on the other side of the ball valves. Parker also unveiled a new SER-HP electronic expansion valve rated at 90 bar for transcritical CO₂ systems. “For stores with CO₂, we are seeing a demand for higher pressure rated components,” Searcy said. Parker has also upgraded its Micro Thermo controller for transcritical systems to control “high-side” valves – the gas cooler and flash gas bypass valves, said Louis Morris, manager, applied engineering, Micro Thermo Instrumentation Group. “This maximizes the COP of the transcritical rack systems.” Parker’s new products were first shown at the AHR Expo in January. Meanwhile Mueller Industries has introduced a ball (shut-off) valve rated at 130 bar, up to 2-1/8 inch in diameter, for transcritical CO₂ systems – what it calls the first such valve in the world to be UL-rated. In the past, “installers for CO2 could get copper-iron tubing to fit up to 2-1/8 inch but had no UL-rated shutoff valve to go with it,” said Christopher Mueller, vice president and general manager – joining systems, Mueller Streamline., Memphis, Tenn.   Read More