The bonnet of a control valve is that part of the body assembly through which the valve plug stem or rotary shaft moves. On globe or angle bodies, it is the pressure retaining component for one end of the valve body. The bonnet normally provides a means of mounting the actuator to the body and houses the packing box. Generally rotary valves do not have bonnets. (On some rotary-shaft valves, the packing is housed within an extension of the valve body itself, or the packing box is a separate component bolted between the valve body and bonnet.) On a typical globe-style control valve body, the bonnet is made of the same material as the valve body or is an equivalent forged material because it is a pressure-containing member subject to the same temperature and corrosion effects as the body. Several styles of valve body-to-bonnet connections are illustrated. The most common is the bolted flange type shown in figure 3-15 showing a bonnet with an integral flange and figure 3-3 showing a bonnet with a separable, slip-on flange held in place with a split ring. The bonnet used on the high pressure globe valve body in figure 3-4 is screwed into the valve body.

Figure 3-9 is typical of rotary-shaft control valves where the packing is housed within the valve body and a bonnet is not used. The actuator linkage housing is not a pressure-containing part and is intended to enclose the linkage for safety and environmental protection. On control valve bodies with cage- or retainer-style trim, the bonnet furnishes loading force to prevent leakage between the bonnet flange and the valve body and also between the seat ring and the valve body. The tightening of the body-bonnet bolting compresses a flat sheet gasket to seal the body-bonnet joint, compresses a spiral-wound gasket on top of the cage, and compresses another flat sheet gasket below the seat ring to provide the seat ring-body seal. The bonnet also provides alignment for the cage, which in turn guides the valve plug, to ensure proper valve plug stem alignment with the packing. As mentioned, the conventional bonnet on a globe-type control valve houses the packing. The packing is most often retained by a packing follower held in place by a flange on the yoke boss area of the bonnet (figure 3-15). An alternate packing retention means is where the packing follower is held in place by a screwed gland (figure 3-3). This alternate is compact, so it is often used on small control valves; however, the user cannot always be sure of thread engagement. Therefore, caution should be used in adjusting packing compression when the control valve is in service. Most bolted-flange bonnets have an area on the side of the packing box which can be drilled and tapped. This opening is closed with a standard pipe plug unless one of the following conditions exists: It is necessary to purge the valve body and bonnet of process fluid, in which case the opening can be used as a purge connection. The bonnet opening is being used to detect leakage from the first set of packing or from a failed bellows seal.





 

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