Ball valves are widely used industrial fittings, for a wide range of fluid applications in process, power and instrumentation. The valves are quarter-turn, straight through flow valves having a round closure element with complementing rounded seats, permitting uniform sealing stress. The type of seat can vary according to the valve pressure rating and materials of construction.

These are wide duty valves, enabling transfer of gases, liquids and liquids with suspended solids (slurries). Common ball valve are available in materials including brass, bronze, copper, cast iron, ductile iron, stainless and other steel types, metal alloys and plastics including PVC and CPVC. In contrast to other types of valves, ball valves provide superior ease of operation and can maintain and regulate high volume, high pressure and high temperature flow and often offer rugged construction providing for a long service life, and a comparably low cost. These specialty valves are available in a variety of configurations for positive leak tight shut-off and control and are used for both manual as well as remote valve actuation.

The popular and standard configurations include: