Control Valve

Control valve operation

The actuator is the device connected to the valve through the valve stem that provides the force required to move the valve.

As we said earlier, the actuator can be controlled electrically, pneumatically, or hydraulically. The most common and the most reliable is the “Pneumatic Actuator”.

The control valve receives a signal from a controller such as a PLC or a DCS in order to operate. The controller compares the actual flow rate to the desired flow value called the setpoint. The controller will produce an output to move the valve to bring the flow rate to the setpoint value.