How To Select the Proper Valve or Regulator For Your Application

Wednesday, May 18th, 2022

AP Tech’s global distributors and factory support team are available to help you configure AP Tech products based on your specific application. But, did you know you can also configure most valve and regulator applications using resources on AP Tech’s website?

Using a four step process, products can be configured for price and lead time quotation. For a complete explanation of this process, please watch this valve and regulator model selection video .

Now let’s go through an overview of the process and documents needed.

The primary documents needed to configure AP Tech products are the Technical Bulletin #208 Valve and Regulator Selection Guide.  This document recommends valves and regulators by gas application. After a choice is made, you will need to download the individual data sheets recommended in the #208 selection guide. Data sheets are here:  regulator data sheets and valve data sheets

There are four items needed to use the valve and regulator selection guide:

Gas name

Location in gas system, in the source or distribution system (see training for detailed explanation)

Maximum flow

Pressure, minimum and maximum

There will always be new and unique applications. If your specific application or requirement is not defined in the 208 guide or the datasheet, contact your distributor or the factory for support. Point of use applications, i.e., substrate (IGS) valves and regulators recommendations are not in the guide.

There are three data sheets for each model:  AP, AZ, and AK. For example, the 1000 model regulators are available as AP1000, AZ1000, and AK1000.   Since the valve and regulator selection guide is not series specific, you need to choose the series: AP, AZ, or AK. Below is a summary of the differences between our three main product series:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to explore the technical differences between the three series, here are some more resources available on AP Tech’s website:

Body material: Product Note #414, Cautions Concerning Use of Single Melt 316L Stainless Steel. This document is useful for understanding stainless steel options in corrosive gas applications.

Surface finishes available: Surface Finish of AP Tech Products, Document #020718.

Connection types available: Valve Port training video and Product note #443 Valve Porting Guide.

Remember, there are many available non-standard options not shown on the datasheet. If you need a feature or configuration not defined on the datasheet, please contact your local distributor or the factory.