Belleville springs are used within or adjacent to valves for a variety of purposes—the most common being to maintain load on a seal, gasket or packing. They often are used as machine elements in valve actuators or as a component of the valve mechanism and are designed or arranged to provide useful mechanical properties within small spaces. This means they can be retrofitted into existing valve designs with minimal revisions. Clearly, these mechanisms serve a vital purpose. However, many important factors should be considered in selecting a spring.

Instrument, mechanical or project engineers may see a multitude of temperature applications cross their desks. Their immediate reaction might be to employ a temperature control loop. But could a mechanical, self-operated temperature regulator be a better solution for the valve application?

The days when companies populated their websites primarily with PDFs of catalogs, a few paragraphs “About the Company,” a list of “Contacts,” and highlights of “Products” and “Customers Served” are behind us. Saavy companies today know that to draw customers and potential customers to their sites requires coming up with ways to add value to those who visit. After all, the world is now bombarded with places to go on the Web so companies need to find reasons why people should visit their website.

Specification sheets for selecting automated valves list requirements for the valve and actuator but often lump all other devices together as related instrumentation or accessories.