Globe Valve vs. Gate Valve

Globe Valve vs. Gate Valve

When looking for the best valve for your plumbing installation, the right knowledge will keep you on track. That's why it's important to know about the advantages of choosing a globe valve vs. gate valve installation. The two types have similarities, which is why they are so often compared against one another. They both are common in industrial applications. 

Difference Between Gate Valve and Globe Valve

Gate valves: this valve is designed to start and stop the flow of water. It is named for the way that the stopper drops like a gate. The design offers little resistance and fluid flows unimpeded through the valve. One last thing, gate valves can be set in any directional flow.

Globe valves: this valve is designed to start, stop, and regulate the flow of water. It's named for the spherical valve body shape that forms around the plug/disc stopper. Globe valves are relatively resistant to leakage. This type of valve suffers from high pressure drop, as opposed to the gate valve.

Visual Difference: Globe vs. Gate Valve

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Related resources:
What Is a Gate Valve?
What Is a Globe Valve?
Globe Valve vs. Ball Valve
Gate Valve vs. Butterfly Valve
Butterfly Valve vs. Ball Valve

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GATE VALVE AND GLOBE VALVE?

Gate valves are used for On-Off control whereas Globe valves in addition can also be used for the flow regulation.Gate valves of the same size are cheaper than globe valves.Gate valves because of their design have very little fluid trapping in the line but the globe valves have a larger amount due to the direction of flow.

Gate valves offer very little resistance to fluid flow in fully open position and also have small pressure drop across the valve. Globe valves on the other hand have a high pressure drop even in fully open conditions and offer substantial resistance to fluid flow.

Gate valves are unidirectional and can be put around in any way. The globe valves are not.Both flow valves,Globe valve and gate valve have similar external housing but operational functions of both differ little.

The main difference between globe and gate valve is in the form of the inner elements and the form of the flow inside the both valves. Globe valve has very good throttling ability while gate valve is not used for throttling.Gate valve is best suited for isolation and globe valve is best suited for regulating or throttling the flow.

Globe Valves:

Globe valves vs gate valves are designed for many applications in several fields, including the oil and gas industry. However, each valve doesn’t serve the same function.

Globe valves are generally used to stop, start, and regulate flow within a pipe. They’re made with a spherical body and a disc. The disc within the globe valve is designed to move up and down from the seat. These vertical movements allow the space between the disc and the seat to change slowly when the valve starts to close. This gives the valve good throttling ability and allows it to regulate flow within a pipeline.

The flow rate of a globe valve depends on the space between the disc and the seat. The further apart they are, the more liquid that will flow through the valve.

Globe valves are also designed with a stem connected to the bonnet right above the disc to maintain a tight seal when the valve is fully closed. Because of that, globe valves are less likely to experience seat leakage compared to other valves.

These valves can double as control valves and are commonly used for corrosive, highly viscous media as well as high-pressure and high-temperature systems.

Globe valves cannot seal tight as compared to gate valve.Gate valve has tight shut-off ability in pipe lines.Because of this tight shut-off ability of gate valve,it is used upstream of globe valve.

You might have seen this gate and globe valve combination at the discharge pipe of pumps.Globe valve requires greater torque to operate as compared to gate valve.

This greater power requirement for globe valve is also considered when designing automatic and motor operated actuators for valves.In a globe valve, the closure element is usually called a “poppet”, and it travels perpendicular to the plane of the seat.

The globe valve can be repaired in place while nearly all gate valves need to be removed from the piping system to have leakage problems repaired.
A globe valve can be opened against a high differential pressure, while a gate valve will bind and cannot be opened. If you try to open against a high DP, the seat will score and leak.

A globe valve has a near linear characteristics of CV vs. % open, while a gate valve has a severe parabolic characteristic and thus cannot be used for throttling.

Gate Valves:

Gate valves are used in plants in the oil and gas industry as well. However, they’re designed only to start and stop flow within a piping system. They, unfortunately, won’t regulate flow.

Gate valves are also designed differently than globe valves. Instead of a disc, these valves have gate faces that are parallel or wedge shaped, and they’re designed with a rising or a non-rising stem. This helps workers understand when the valve is fully open or fully closed.

These valves are also known to have lower pressure drops and offer little resistance to fluid flow, especially in the fully open position. Most importantly, gate valves can be set in any directional flow. Globe valves, on the other hand, can’t.

Gate Valve is not designed to regulate flow ,and if done so then we observe noise ,vibration and seat / disk damage in gate valves. While globe valve can be sometimes used for stop start of flow in case of unavailability of gate valve.Gate valve is generally used for isolation.

Gate valve can be used in both directions as designs are available for both directions of flow.Same gate valve can have flow in both directions.While globe valve has flow direction usually indicated on it and is used in compliance with that.

Valve Opening and closing geometry of disk and seat is also a difference between globe and gate valve.

In a gate valve, the closure element is a plate or disk which travels parallel to the plane of the seat. The gate in a dam is a well known example.

The difference between globe valve and gate valve

The difference between globe valve and gate valve, The difference between gate valve and globe valve

From the structure:
The length of the gate valve is shorter than that of the stop valve, and the height is higher than that of the stop valve. The installation of the rising stem gate valve should pay attention to the height. This should be paid attention to when the installation space is limited. The gate valve can be tightly closed with the sealing surface depending on the medium pressure, so as to achieve the effect of no leakage. When opening and closing, the valve core and the valve seat sealing surface are always in contact and rub against each other, so the sealing surface is easy to wear. When the gate valve is close to closing, the pressure difference between the front and rear of the pipeline is large, which makes the sealing surface wear more serious.

In principle:
The difference between the globe valve and the gate valve in principle is that the globe valve is a rising stem type, and the hand wheel rotates and rises together with the stem. In the gate valve, the hand wheel rotates and the valve stem moves upward. The flow rate is different, the gate valve is required to be fully open or fully closed, but the stop valve is not required. The shut-off valve has specified inlet and outlet directions; the gate valve has no inlet and outlet direction requirements.
Schematic diagram of gate valve Schematic diagram of globe valve
Explanation: The flow part of the gate valve is also the same as the straight pipe, but a gate is set in the pipe. If the gate is lifted up, the door will be fully opened, and the fluid of the stop valve will turn inside the valve. A 180-degree bend, usually the fluid enters from one side of the valve and after entering the valve, the fluid flows upward at a 90-degree angle, and then flows through the upper part of the valve body and then turns a 90-degree flow out, just as the fluid flows inside the valve. A cover is added to the upper outlet, the cover is closed and the door is closed, and the valve is opened when the cover is opened.

From the flow up:
The shut-off valve is low in and high out. From the outside, it is obvious that the pipeline is not on the horizontal line of one phase. The gate valve flow path is on a horizontal line. The stroke of the gate valve is larger than that of the stop valve.

Explanation: From the perspective of flow resistance, the flow resistance of the gate valve is small when it is fully opened, and the flow resistance of the load stop valve is large. The flow resistance coefficient of ordinary gate valve is about 0.08~0.12, the opening and closing force is small, and the medium can flow in two directions. The flow resistance of ordinary globe valves is 3-5 times that of gate valves. When opening and closing, it needs to be forced to close to achieve the seal. The valve core of the stop valve does not contact the sealing surface when it is completely closed, so the wear of the sealing surface is very small. The stop valve that needs to add an actuator due to the main flow force should pay attention to the torque control mechanism Adjustment.

From the installation:
1. The flow direction of the gate valve is the same when entering from both sides.
2. There are two ways to install the shut-off valve. One is that the medium can enter from below the valve core. The advantage is that the packing is not stressed when the valve is closed, which can prolong the service life of the packing and can be piped in front of the valve. Under pressure, the packing should be replaced; the disadvantage is that the driving torque of the valve is relatively large, which is about 1 times that of the upper flow, and the axial force on the valve stem is large, and the valve stem is easy to bend. Therefore, this method is generally only suitable for small-diameter stop valves (below DN50). For stop valves above DN200, the medium flows in from above. (The electric shut-off valve generally adopts the way that the medium enters from above.) The shortcoming of the medium entering method from above is just the opposite of that of the downward entering method.

From the sealing surface:
The sealing surface of the globe valve is a small trapezoidal side of the valve core (see the shape of the valve core for details). Once the valve core falls off, it is equivalent to closing the valve (if the pressure difference is large, of course the closing is not tight, but the anti-reverse effect is not bad). The gate valve is sealed by the side of the valve core gate plate, the sealing effect is not as good as the stop valve, and the valve core will not be closed like the stop valve when the valve core falls off.