We now stock Plug Valves in the following sizes: 3”, 4”, 6”, 8”, 10”, 12”, 14”, 16”, 18”, 20” and 24”.

Our Plug Valves are available with EPDM Plugs for potable water and high temperature applications or Buna-N Plugs for standard applications. Special features of our Plug Valves include

• Fusion bonded Epoxy coated: Specialist baked-on interior coatings minimise the build-up of sewage on the inside of the valve – reduces maintenance, clogging and prevents corrosion & abrasion of the valve.
• Grit guards: Prevents wear of bearing and shaft seizing by minimising contact with grit (or other media).
• Stainless steel fastenings: Prevents rusting and allows for easy opening even after several years of use in applications.

For prices, availability and lead times, or to speak to our Technical Engineers, please call us on +44 (0) 870 803 2001 or email us at sales@mgacontrols.co.uk.

For more information on the features and benefits of our range of Plug Valves, please see the following product pages:

Plug Valves – An Overview

Val-Matic Plug Valves

2" Air Vacuum Valve in stock - More sizes available!

We now stock the following sizes of Air Valves:
Available in nominal bore sizes: ½”, 1″, 2″, 3″, 4″, 6″, 8″, 10″
Flange sizes available: 50mm, 80mm, 100mm, 150mm, 200mm, 250mm, 300mm

• Why pick our Air Valves?
• Why pick us for your technical support?
• Why understanding the characteristics of an application is essential in sizing an Air Valve?

Read on to understand…

The sizing of air valves is critical for an application to ensure appropriate surge control and consistent optimum system performance. Often people ask, for example, for an 80mm or 100mm air valve without defining the characteristics of a system. As a result they can receive a variety of options from numerous manufacturers all looking to win the bid. In reality the valve they receive may well have an 80mm or 100mm flanged connection but in an attempt to reduce the competitive cost of the valve often has an orifice that is insufficient for the application. The result is a reduction of flow rates, destructive water hammer, increased maintenance costs and increased running costs.

At MGA Controls we stock a range of air valves that can be combined to offer a variety of functions to rationalise and optimise the system components over a wide range of flow characteristics. These valve combinations can be sized specifically for the application and fitted to existing pipework connections using an appropriate range of flange adapters. Our technical experts are on hand to carry out this service, please call us on +44 (0) 870 803 2001 or email us at sales@mgacontrols.co.uk.

For more information on the features and benefits of our Air Valves, please read he following pages:

Air Valves – An overview

Val-Matic Air Valves

Not only is MGA now your “go-to” supplier for guaranteed next-day delivery of check valves at competitive prices, we also hold the technical expertise to specify and size our check valves into many applications. We have carried out this exercise with the UK’s biggest water utilities and have gained vast experience and knowledge of system requirements, common problems, and the need to balance system efficiency, performance and cost.

For prices, availability and lead times, or to speak to our Technical Engineers, please call us on +44 (0) 870 803 2001 or email us at sales@mgacontrols.co.uk.

For more information on the features and benefits of our range of Check Valves, please read the following product pages:

SwingFlex Check Valves

Surgebuster Check Valves

Silent Check Valves

Dual Disc Check Valves

Tilted Disc Check Valves

The Application:

A major UK mining company were using a water monitor to blast rock and clay rubble with a very high velocity of water which contained hard particles. This was aggressively eroding all the valves installed in the clay mining application. This was causing the valves to leak and was therefore making the application less efficient and more costly.

The Solution:

Hobbs Valve recommended their Triple Offset Butterfly Valve which has been in place for over a year a now and still continues to close at 100% at all times. Hobbs’ innovative Triple Offset design includes metal to metal seating which ensures bubble tight closure of the valve, resulting in zero-leakage performance. Furthermore, no cavities between sealing components eliminates the ingress of particles meaning no clogging, low maintenance requirements and longer valve life.

The Advantages for the end-user:

• Considerable savings in power and costs: The UK mining company no longer has to keep the ring main operating at all times due to valve leakage, they can now shut-off active pumps when not required.
• Significantly reduced valve replacement and maintenance: The Triple Offset Butterfly Valves are still working at 100% effectiveness and are expected to continue this service for the foreseeable future.
• True technical expertise and solution-driven advice: Hobbs Valve and the UK Contractor involved were able to provide a solution for the customer which overcame all of their operational problems – this is the kind of service which is repeatedly exercised at Hobbs Valve.

Please click on the following links to learn more about the features and benefits of Hobbs Triple Offset Valves:

• Triple Offset Butterfly Valves
• Triple Offset Cryogenic Butterfly Valves
• Triple Offset Double Block & Bleed Valves

MGA Controls work in partnership with Hobbs Valve and sit between Hobbs the manufacturer and the end-user to provide technical solutions to overcome application problems. Please contact our technical team on +44 (0) 870 803 2001 or email us at sales@mgacontrols.co.uk for advice.

These specialist Solenoid valves and Pressure operated valves have specific designs, which allow them to deal with high pressure, high flow and high temperature in the most severe hot water and steam applications. Some examples of where these rugged, Direct-operated and Pilot-operated solenoid valves for Hot water and Steam may be used are laundry, dry cleaning, moulding, steam baths, sterilisers and autoclaves.

The designs of specialist solenoid valves for Hot Water and Steam are outlined below:

Heavy duty piston design:
Lightweight stamped, brass or stainless steel pistons give all round support to the resilient tight sealing discs. This design provides a long, trouble-free life even in stringent steam service applications.

Pilot operated hung diaphragm design:
With this Solenoid Valve design, the diaphragm is mechanically connected to the core making the valve operates from zero. This design allows for control in low pressure, high flow systems

Straight through slide disc design:
This Solenoid Valve design has a Direct-Acting, self cleaning slide construction with a guillotine type disc. This design minimises pressure drop and turbulence through the valve.

Y-body floating piston design:
This valve design provides high flow with relatively small orifices and extremely compact mounting dimensions, these solenoid valves only need small pressure differentials to operate.
Miniature core disc design:
A small sized Direct-Acting Solenoid Valve with stainless steel seat, offering a long continuous cycle life for use in severe steam applications.

Heavy duty piston controlled designs:
This Solenoid Valve design has a pressure controlled spring loaded piston actuator, which ensures safe closing. These Solenoid Valves are suitable for handing high pressure and high flow steam applications.

Please see our product pages, Solenoid Valves for Water and Solenoid Valves for Steam if you have need for these rugged, resilient Solenoid Valves for a Steam or Hot Water application. We have the technical expertise and knowledge, as well as a large range of stock – we are therefore confident we an find a solution to the most demanding of applications.

The below graph illustrates the performance of the Check Valve in relation to slam. The best performing valve is the Silent Check Valve (SCV). A close second is the Surgebuster Check Valve – a Check Valve which is ideal for waste water applications. This is important as usually Check Valves for waste water application are inherently, by design, less effective at dealing with water slam than Check Valves for clean water application. However, according to Valmatic’s testing criteria, their waste water Check Valve was one of the better valves for dealing with water slam.

Following the Surgebuster Check Valve, we have the Dual Disc Check Valve and the Tilted Disc Check Valve, which are both Check Valves for clean water applications. Then we have the Swing-Flex Check Valve, another Check Valve for waste water applications.

It is important to note here, just because the Surgebuster Check Valve performs better than the Swing-Flex Check Valve at dealing with slam in this test, it does not necessarily mean the Surgebuster Check Valve is the valve to choose for your waste water application. Other issues such as cost, headloss, and the pumping system design and features should be taken into account. For more information about these issues send us an email to sales@mgacontrols.co.uk or contact us on 08444 501 123 (International: + 44 (0) 870 803 2001).

During our experiences talking to Design Engineers in the Water Industry, one of the main questions we are asked is….”Why is the Valmatic swing check valve better than the traditional swing check valve? Then we proceed to tell them exactly why!

The table below summarises the main points, but for more information read the white paper Valmatic Swing-Flex Check Valve Vs Traditional Swing Check Valves in our downloads section.

Any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them, we will always endeavour to get back to you immediately.

We now have some picture of the very SURGEBUSTER Check Valves themselves…take a look!

 The following information was taken from an industry news site www.processindustryforum.com

A call was received from a prominent consultant looking for a solution to a noisy problem.  The call was in regards to a helipad in the middle of an off-shore wind farm which received water from 1 of 2 pumps 12m below water level. The water was distributed through 2” nozzles and a 4” line from two 3” combined vertical rising mains.

All pipe work was in stainless steel which suited the environment and the pumps delivered water to the nozzles with a pressure of up to 8 Bar and a flow up to 1200 l/min. 

With such a flow rate, high supply pressure and 12m head, the specified and fitted Dual Disc Check Valves were never going to be responsive enough to prevent a surge, pressure spike or be without slam. When it came to commissioning the project they were rejected.

However, MGA Controls Ltd had a solution to this problem…in the ValMatic Surgebuster Check Valve. The Surgebuster is designed specifically for vertical and high head applications and is the only solution to completely overcome slamming, water hammering or surges caused by reverse flow.

The Surgebuster achieves rapid closure through a short disc stroke of 35° and adjustable Disc Accelerator. The short disc stroke is less than half the typical 80° to 90° stroke of a conventional swing check valve. It is achieved by placing the valve seat on a 45° angle while maintaining a full flow area equal to the mating pipe. The Disc Accelerator is a precision formed stainless steel mechanism that closes the valve disc rapidly thus avoiding slamming by flow reversal and yet allowing the disc to be stabilised under flow conditions. The accelerator is fully enclosed within the valve and completely out of the flow path.

The two 3” Surgebuster Check Valves supplied in Stainless Steel with closing accelerator and massively reduced headloss across the valve provided the solution the end user was looking for. 

The benefits of using ValMatic’s Surgebuster Check Valve in your application:

• Reduced cost
• Low head loss
• Special flow characteristics

Direct operated solenoid valves

Asco Numatics have launched their 256/356 range of Solenoid Valves

This addition to Asco’s range of Solenoid valves creates a competitive and functional range of 1/8” and 1/4”direct operated solenoid valves. The 256/356 series of solenoid valves complements Asco’s current offering of solenoid valves, with a range of 1/8 and manifold mounted solenoid valves



The benefits of the 256/356 series of Asco Solenoid Valves are as follows:

• Long lasting service life, up to 20 million cycles
• Low power consumption (AC=4W and DC= 5.5W)
• Easy maintenance and easy installation, due to easily removable core tube and screw type operator
• Operation with hard water – square section core prevents calcium build up
• Corrosion resistant – stainless steel external parts and core tube
• Wide chemical capabilities: FPM (viton)
• High differential pressure – up to 35 bar

With this addition of solenoid valves, Asco Numatics now offer a complete range of sub-miniature solenoid valves:

• Series 256-356: Threaded solenoid valves (2/2 , 3/2 , Brass & St Steel)
• Series 108-109: Manifold solenoid valve mounted on joinable subbase
• Series 256-356: Solenoid valves mounted on barrel (2 to 10 positions)

Why are Asco 256/356 solenoid valves better than the competition?

The 256/356 solenoid valves have FPM Disc seals

Low power consumption 6VA (AC) / 4.5W (DC)

Higher flow coefficient (1.33 & 2.16)

Manual operator as Standard

Differential pressure 0-35 bar (AC) & 0-20 bar (DC)

Why is Asco’s direct operating solenoid valve better than Burkert?

• The core tube cannot be disassembled
• No manual operator in the standard version
• Low differential pressure performances (AC: 21 bar ; DC:12 bar)

Why is Asco’s direct operating solenoid valve better than Burkert?

• 3 coil sizes 22, 26 and 32mm for the 1/8’’ solenoid valves
• 2 spade terminals coils (no grounding)
• No H class coil for the size 22mm