Like other valves, vacuum valves use basic mechanical principles such as gate valves, baffle discs, or rotating discs to separate or isolate vacuum zones and control volumetric flow.
However, the basic conditions for using these mechanical principles are completely different, such as high degree of freedom particles, precise control of very small volume flow, sealing, and minimal vibration and impact, which makes vacuum valve design types diverse.
At present, there are the following basic types of vacuum valves:
Vacuum gate valve - usually an ideal choice for isolation or simpler control applications. The installation depth is very narrow, with the highest conductivity (minimum flow resistance), but the travel space of the gate is required.
Vacuum angle valve - very compact in size, typically very modular in terms of sealing, actuators, and sensors. The average conductivity is very easy to maintain.
Vacuum butterfly valve - mainly used for control applications. Very narrow installation depth, good conductivity, fast and precise controllability.
Vacuum swing valve - very narrow installation depth and compact size, combined with very precise control behavior, excellent insulation ability, and very high conductivity.
Symmetrical flow vacuum regulating valve - a special type that optimizes the very uniform flow behavior from the first opening to the entire valve opening.
Gas metering valve or leak valve - suitable for very precise metering, such as metering low flow process gases.
Pressure relief valve or exhaust valve - a safety valve that allows controlled (usually complete) ventilation of a vacuum system and prevents exceeding specified pressure conditions.
Vacuum check valve - a passive, volumetric flow and differential pressure operated valve. Usually used to protect vacuum systems from backflow contamination. For example, used between vacuum reflux pumps and vacuum systems.
Quick closing valve - an active protective valve that typically protects large vacuum volumes or chambers from vacuum loss due to leakage, and has a very fast closing response to detected pressure drops.
Vacuum all metal valve - a set of vacuum valves designed specifically for extreme pressure, temperature, and radiation conditions, with a hard to hard (metal to metal) seal instead of an elastic seal.
Vacuum multi valve device - a special type of vacuum valve that combines the functions of several vacuum valves into one unit, with the main features of reducing the number of components and fast assembly speed.
Three position vacuum valve - a special form of vacuum isolation valve that can define a third valve position in addition to the closed and open positions. One application is to avoid pressure pulses caused by valves opening too quickly under high pressure differentials.
In addition to these basic types, there are also a large number of hybrid variants, some of which combine different valve technologies or provide solutions for certain special requirements.
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