ITT Engineered Valves
Dia-Flo Handwheel Locking Device
The Dia-Flo Handwheel Locking Device is a simple mechanical accessory that secures a manual Dia-Flo diaphragm valve in its set position. Once engaged, the valve cannot be operated until the device is deliberately unlocked and disengaged.
Product Benefits
- People are the variable: Manual valves are only as reliable as the people walking past them.
- No accidental operation: A locking device removes the risk of a critical valve being nudged, tampered with or operated by mistake.
- Deliberate two-step release: Changing the valve position requires a conscious sequence: unlock the device, then disengage it.
- Inexpensive discipline: It is a low-cost way to enforce operating discipline, so set points stay where the process engineer left them and isolation lineups stay isolated until someone with authority changes them.
Where It's Used
- Positions that must hold: The device fits manual Dia-Flo diaphragm valves wherever preserving a valve position matters.
- Isolation and throttling: Typical targets are isolation points that must stay closed and balancing or throttling valves that must hold a set opening.
- Protected lineups: It also guards lineups where an unplanned change could upset the process.
- Formal position control: It is typical in plants that formalize control of valve positions as part of their operating and safety procedures, from utilities headers to chemical process lines served by the Dia-Flo range.
Good to Know
- An ordering option: This is an option on the Dia-Flo topworks rather than a field improvisation.
- Specified by code: It is selected through the Dia-Flo ordering system under its own option block and code, so the valve arrives with the locking capability built in.
- Lock the critical few: When planning, decide which valves genuinely need locked positions. Locking every handwheel slows routine operation, while locking the critical few gives most of the protection.
