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Floating Ball Valve vs Trunnion Ball Valve: When to Choose Which?
Industrial ball valves are the key instruments that keep fluid control safe, leak-tight, and reliable in India’s oil & gas, refinery, power, and water infrastructure sectors. Floating ball valves and trunnion-mounted ball valves, being the two most common types of configurations, are designed to endure very different mechanical loads, flow conditions, and pressure environments. The correct valve choice has a direct impact on pipeline uptime, safety performance, energy efficiency, and lifecycle cost, largely if high-risk sectors like offshore production, high-pressure natural gas distribution, desalination plants, and complex refinery units are involved.
As both valve designs provide tight shutoff and have a wide pressure-temperature range, engineers’ problem is to pair the valve’s design with the operating pressure, media characteristics, torque requirements, and industry standards.
Besides the differences in the working principles, the performance characteristics, the material selection, and the application suitability aspects, it is clear from the blog when each design should be used for maximum operational reliability.
How Floating Ball Valve Work
A floating ball valve is designed with a floating ball that is not fixed either at the top or bottom. The moment the pressure is applied to the valve, the ball moves slightly downstream and thus seals against the seat.
Key Mechanical Features
- Ball Movement: The ball is free and can move downstream under differential pressure.
- Sealing Mechanism: The sealing is done by the seat that is loaded due to displacement of the ball.
- Torque: Floating ball valves have higher torque as compared to trunnion valves at large sizes or high-pressure operations.
- Size and Pressure Range: Generally designed for low to medium pressure and smaller diameters.
Best For:-
- General industrial shut-off duties
- Clean media with low solid content
- Applications requiring compact and economical solutions
How Trunnion-Mounted Ball Valve Work
A Trunnion-mounting ball valve uses trunnions (axial supports) at the top and bottom that support the ball and, therefore, hold it in position. Since the seats move toward the ball instead of the ball floating toward the seat, the stable operation is guaranteed even under extreme pressures.
Key Mechanical Features
- Ball Movement: Ball is fixed and shafts are anchor points.
- Sealing Mechanism: Spring-loaded or pressure-assisted seats.
- Torque: Low torque even in high-pressure systems.
- Size and Pressure Range: Large pipeline diameters and high-pressure classes.
Best For:-
- High-pressure natural gas
- Crude oil transportation
- Offshore platform
- Heavy-duty petrochemical processes
Material Selection Based on Industry Standards
To maintain accuracy with approved material guidelines, the following materials are used for floating and trunnion ball valves in harsh Indian industrial environments:
Approved Industrial Materials
- Duplex Stainless Steel (F51 / UNS S31803 / 2205)
- Super Duplex Stainless Steel (F53 / F55 / UNS S32750 / 2507)
- Alloy 20
- Hastelloy C276 / B3
- Inconel 625
- Incoloy 825
- Titanium Grade 2
- Aluminium Bronze C95800
- Bronze C83600
These materials deliver resistance against chlorides, seawater, sour gas, high-temperature hydrocarbons, and abrasive slurries ensuring safe operation in India’s oilfields, desalination plants, refineries, and marine environments.
Key Technical Comparison
| Parameter | Floating Ball Valve | Trunnion-Mounted Ball Valve |
| Ball Support | Free-floating ball | Ball fixed using upper and lower trunnions |
| Sealing Mechanism | Ball moves downstream to compress seat | Spring-loaded or pressure-assisted seats move toward ball |
| Pressure Range | Low to medium | Medium to very high |
| Pipeline Size | Generally up to medium diameters | Efficient for large diameters (DN100 and above) |
| Operating Torque | Higher torque due to ball movement | Lower torque, ideal for automated service |
| Leak-Tightness | Reliable shutting for clean media | High-integrity sealing even under fluctuating pressures |
| Suitability for High Differential Pressure | Limited | Excellent |
| Seat Wear | Higher seat wear due to ball load | Lower due to reduced contact force |
| Cost Consideration | Economical for smaller sizes | Higher initial cost but lower long-term operating cost |
| Best Media Type | Clean liquids, gases, low solid content | Harsh media, hydrocarbons, abrasive/viscous fluids |
| Applications | Moderate-duty industrial systems | Critical and high-pressure industrial systems |
| Actuation Compatibility | Manual, pneumatic, electric | Manual, pneumatic, electric, hydraulic—ideal for automation |
| Typical Material Options | Duplex F51, Bronze, Aluminium Bronze | Super Duplex F55, Inconel, Incoloy, Alloy 20, C276 |
| Industry Suitability | Water networks, low-pressure gas, utility lines | Oil & Gas, refinery, offshore, petrochemical, power |
Industry- Specific Applications
Oil & Gas
- Floating Ball Valve: Essential features of these valves incorporated in low-pressure auxiliary gas lines, condensate handling systems, and utility distribution loops are compact design and economical installation.
- Trunnion Ball Valve: Utilized in extreme situations such as high-pressure crude oil, natural gas transmission, compressor discharge lines, and block valve stations that generally require a tightly sealed stability under heavy pressure fluctuations.
Refinery & Petrochemical
- Floating Ball Valve: These are deeply involved in medium-pressure fuel handling lines, heat exchanger bypass circuits, and general process shut-off functions.
- Trunnion Ball Valve: The main application areas for them are hydrotreating, catalytic cracking, high-temperature hydrocarbon transfer, and critical unit isolation where performing fire-safe, leak-proof operations is a necessity.
Water & Wastewater
- Floating Ball Valve: They play a role in low-pressure raw water distribution, tertiary treatment lines, and pipeline segment isolation.
- Trunnion Ball Valve: They are suitable for use in high-pressure pumping stations, large-diameter transmission pipelines, and critical isolation in industrial effluent management.
Desalination
- Floating Ball Valve: They are doing their job efficiently in auxiliary seawater supply lines, low-pressure intake systems, and post-treatment distribution networks.
- Trunnion Ball Valve: They are the backbone of major industrial areas such as high-pressure brine discharge manifolds, and energy recovery systems through the use of corrosion-resistant Super Duplex materials.
Mining & Mineral Processing
- Floating Ball Valve: Some of the areas where these valves found their application are chemical dosing lines, low-pressure slurry bypass systems, and utility water circuits.
- Trunnion Ball Valve: They are mainly employed in abrasive slurry transfer, high-pressure pumping systems, and process isolation that necessitate reinforced designs and high-performance alloys.
Marine & Offshore
- Floating Ball Valve: These are a few examples of where you can find them onboard water control units, cooling water circuits, and low-pressure service across onboard systems.
- Trunnion Ball Valve: They are the prerequisites for subsea pipelines, offshore crude handling, gas lift systems, and high-pressure topside process modules using corrosion-resistant Super Duplex, Inconel, and C95800 alloys.
Choosing between a floating ball valve and a trunnion-mounted ball valve is mainly determined by the system’s pressure class, media characteristics, actuation method, and long-term operational risk. Floating designs are still viable for low- to medium-pressure services, clean process fluids. While that is true, trunnion-mounted valves provide higher stability, controlled torque, and less leakage sustained even at high pressure, bigger diameters, and performing cycling operations usually found in the case of the critical transmission lines and process units.
Additionally, both valves with the appropriate material selection can become a reservoir of reliability for a long time in environments that are corrosive, abrasive, or even heavily demanding by nature.
As industries are getting more automated, requiring tighter emission standards and more severe operating cycles, the correctness of valve specification becomes vital. A company like Speciality Valves, which has the expertise in supplying high-performance industrial ball valves to refineries and pipeline operators all over India and globally, is a great support in making sure that the most reliable, application-appropriate valve design is used in each project.
