Roberts Irrigation touts PVC butterfly valves. (Irrigation Focus).

Superman was the Man of Steel; tough and reliable. The winner of the crown jewel of the triathlon circuit is the Iron Man; durable and hard. The fact is that we would have never gone to the movies to see the Man of Plastic, and nobody would spend a lifetime training to win the title of Polypropylene Man. Common knowledge tells us that if it's metal, then it's tough.

But the kind of strength that makes a good valve is better found in other materials than iron and steel. The property that has the greatest effect on valve life is corrosion resistance -- a property of which metals are notoriously bad. Other important properties such as wear resistance and strength per unit weight are also not strong points of iron and mild steel. When maximum reliability is required in high-end industrial butterfly valve applications where cost is not a consideration, PVC and CPVC are the materials of choice, not metal.

Roberts Irrigation Products, Inc., a provider of drip and micro irrigation products has teamed with CEPEX, Europe's largest manufacturer of thermoplastic valves and fittings to change all of that. Roberts has introduced a line of PVC butterfly valves to the irrigation market that are cost competitive with metal valves, and are more reliable and lighter in weight. CEPEX PVC butterfly valves have been used for over 25 years in demanding industrial and wastewater systems, commercial pools, and irrigation and water handling applications in environments that range from the coldest winters in Scandinavia to the hottest summers in the Sahara.