We've been putting out a lot of information in recent months about pressure regulators. You may have participated in the webinars we've presented with Swagelok field engineer Eric Kayla. You also may have read some of our blog posts on the subject (see all our pressure regulator posts in the here). Now we've taken the basics of sizing regulators and put them in a single publication that you can download from our website.
For some people who are used to working with valves, regulators can seem confounding at first. There’s a lot more to a regulator and the job that it performs, than people sometimes realize. The guide, titled "Selection & Sizing of Pressure Reducing Regulators," looks at the parts of a regulator and how they work together. It explains some of the problems that can crop up when a regulator is put into conditions it was never intended to handle.
The guide then explains the key element in sizing: the flow curve. These are graphs that show how each model of regulator is designed to perform under specific combinations of flow and pressure. As the guide notes, "size" doesn't refer to the size of the end connections. Rather, it refers to how much flow can pass through the regulator. As the name indicates, pressure regulators regulate only pressure, not flow.
With this guide to get you started, you'll be in a good position to select and size a pressure regulator. Even if you still want to discuss the details of your system with one of our Swagelok Northern California representatives before you place an order, you'll come into the conversation with a better working knowledge of what regulators do and how they do it.
| Technical Bulletin and Article on Pressure Regulator Flow Curves | Slide Deck: Theory & Operation of Pressure Reducing Regulators | Swagelok Pressure Regulators Catalog |