Water pumps are general-purpose mechanical devices that pressurize and transport liquids through rotation or reciprocating motion, and are widely used in various fields of industry, agriculture, municipal engineering, and daily life. In pump valves, the carbide valve ball, as a key opening, closing, and sealing element in its core sealing and shut-off components, ensures the efficient and reliable operation of the entire system under extreme working conditions.
1. Material Composition of Cemented Carbide Valve Balls for Water Pumps
Cemented carbide valve balls are powder metallurgy products, using hard metal carbide powders such as tungsten carbide (WC) as the hard phase, and adding metals such as cobalt (Co) or nickel (Ni) as binders. These powders are mixed, shaped, and sintered in a high-temperature vacuum environment exceeding 1500℃, ultimately forming a dense, high-strength spherical component.
2. Performance Advantages of Cemented Carbide Valve Balls for Water Pumps
Exceptional Hardness and Wear Resistance: Its hardness can reach HRA 90.5 or higher, and its wear resistance is tens or even hundreds of times greater than that of high-quality steel balls.
Excellent Corrosion Resistance and Impact Resistance: Its dense structure effectively resists erosion by corrosive media such as acids and alkalis. Simultaneously, the cobalt binder phase provides good toughness, enabling it to withstand cyclic high-pressure impacts exceeding 35 MPa within drilling pumps without easily breaking.
Superior Sealing Performance: Through precision machining, the valve ball achieves extremely high sphericity and extremely low surface roughness, forming a reliable line seal with the valve seat, achieving zero leakage.
3. Application Areas of Cemented Carbide Valve Balls for Water Pumps
Oil and Gas Drilling: This is the most typical application scenario. In deep-sea drilling or onshore high-pressure oil wells, as a core component of the pump valve, it withstands the scouring of high-pressure mud containing sand and wax, ensuring the long-term efficient operation of the drilling pump.
Demanding process industries: Stability and non-contamination characteristics are crucial in chemical pumps used to transport highly corrosive chemicals and in ultrapure water pumps required by the semiconductor industry.
Important long-distance pipelines: In long-distance oil and gas pipelines, full-bore welded cemented carbide ball valves can withstand drastic temperature changes, ensuring pipeline safety.
