Hinge-Less Valve Keeps Sewers Functional

In 1984, the US EPA asked Red Valve to help mitigate some of the inflow and infiltration problems it was seeing with traditional flap gate valves. The company launched a two-year R&D program in conjunction with Utah State University and the Tideflex check valve was born.

The traditional flap gate valve is characterized by hinges. With age, the hinges corrode and gates get stuck, either open or closed. As Chris Mitchell, West Regional Sales Manager for Red Valve Company and Tideflex Technologies explains in this Water Online Radio interview, “If they stay open and the tide comes up, you inundate the storm sewer. If it starts to rain, the rain has nowhere to go and it floods your roads, your highways, or your runways at your airports. Our job is to keep that flow out, so you can maximize your storm system for capacity.”

Primarily, the Tideflex check valve was developed as a backflow preventer for tides, rivers, streams, getting back into sewer systems. Shortly thereafter, the engineering community found the valve useful for use on multiport outflows that are typically connected to effluent discharge systems.

For more on check valves and their application, click on the audio player below: