Technical Article – Master Lock Seal Tight Ball Valve Lockout

Master Lock Seal Tight™ ball valve lockout. Locking a ball valve is not as straight forward as locking a gate valve. Why is this?

There are two methods of operating manual valves. Either with a multi-rotational wheel, or with a lever (wrench) that turns through 90°.

Achieving a satisfactory lockoff, whereby the primary actuator (wheel or lever) cannot be turned is much easier on a wheel than a lever. The wheel can either be enclosed in a wheel cover, or secured with a cable lockout or chain. In the case of the latter, the cable or chain can be looped around the rim or spoke of the wheel and then around the valve bonnet or some nearby steel or pipework. In this way, you can usually achieve a reasonably secure lockout.

This is not the case with levers for two reasons:

The cable or chain can be slid off the end of the lever.
Unlike wheel operated valves, the top of the valve can vary in design from one manufacturer to another. This makes it hard to design a lockout that will fit well across all valve manufactures and sizes.

Despite this, Master Lock have gone some way to achieve a universal design. The Seal Tight™ Ball Valve Lockout might appear somewhat ungainly but is an effective lockout solution for lever operated valves.

Fitting the device is quite straightforward and involves removing the valve lever. With the valve stem exposed, the hole in the Seal Tight™ lockout passes over the top. A strap then passes around the back of the valve body, returning to a special loop/grip. Once closed, the lockout device is securely fixed in place. The final step is to secure the valve lever in a lockable zip pocket.

By using a strap to attach the device in this way, Seal Tight™can fit just about all sizes of lever operated ball valve. Master Lock have produced a video clip which shows how the Seal Tight™ ball valve lockout is fitted to the valve.

The Seal Tight™ valve lockout device is available now from Total Lockout (Safety) Ltd.