Great Animated Movie Showing the Internals of a Control Valve

Here is a great video of the internal construction of a control valve (in this case its the Valtek MaxFlo 3 by Flowserve).

The animation is first class and reveals all the major internal parts of the valve and actuator. For anyone just learning about control valves, its well worth the 2 minutes to view.

Rack and Pinion Pneumatic Actuator Basics

A rack and pinion gear.
(Courtesy of  Wikipedia)

Rack & Pinion actuators are designed for operating quarter-turn valves such as butterfly, plug, and ball valves or for actuating industrial or commercial dampers.

The rotational movement of a rack and pinion actuator is accomplished via linear motion and two gears. A circular gear, referred to a “pinion” engages the teeth of a linear gear “bar” referred to as the “rack”.

In a pneumatic actuator, pistons are attached to the rack. As air or spring power is applied the to piston, the rack is “pushed” inward or “pulled” outward. This dual direction linear movement is transferred to the rotary pinion gear providing bi-directional rotation.

Five Advantages of Firetube Boilers

Five advantages of a firetube boiler over a watertube boiler are:

Firetubes provide the highest efficiency from the boiler without an economizer. 

Lower capital cost.

Smaller footprint in most applications. 

Less maintenance.

Easier to ship.

Below is a video that briefly describes the advantages and explains what a firetube boiler is (courtesy of Victory Engineering).

For more information on firetube or watertube boilers, call 925-208-4250 or visit www.cti-ct.com.

Welcome to The CTI Controltech Blog

The Internet has changed people's behavior. People do their own research.  The first place anyone looks now for information is the Web. With this in mind, we're introducing the CTI Controltech Blog, a place where you can find educational information on industrial combustion and process control equipment.

We plan on providing regular posts about many topics including burner controls, boilers, process instrumentation, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems, engineered valves and valve automation. We'll try and deliver interesting and informative application notes and product introductions that will help you understand how these products work and interesting ways in which they are applied.