The world’s largest valve

With a weight of 117 tons and a service life of 100 years

Valves make daily life easier in all areas: whether it’s inflating a bicycle tyre, shutting the water tap or turning on the heating.  If the valve does not work properly or is not leak-tight any more, all you have to do is to replace it there and then.  A quick and reliable solution for these minor problems. But what if the valve is not just a few centimetres long but its height is that of a multi-family dwelling with three or four storeys? In this case, you are dealing with the world’s largest valve which has to meet very special requirements.   

The world’s largest valve weighs about as much as 20 elephants

IPL (Integrated Pipeline), America’s first water pipeline project located between two waterworks in the north of Texas, needed a valve that could handle a delivery capacity of 1.59 billion litres of water – per day, that is.  In order to achieve this, British manufacturer Blackhall developed the world’s largest valve to date with a majestic height of 12 metres and a weight of 117 tons – which corresponds to the weight of about 20 elephants. And as if the development of a valve of this order of magnitude weren’t demanding enough, it has to last one hundred years. According to the manufacturer and the tests, the valve will easily make it through the envisaged period. The huge valve was installed in 2018 and its assembly can be watched in this short YouTube documentation.

We at Skarke cannot help you with the world’s largest valves, but we can supply premium-quality oil-service valves and air-vent valves whose quality convinces customers all over the world. Please do not hesitate to contact us for personal advice ranging from the simple oil-service valve with standard dimensions up to customised valves precisely tailored to your needs.