The advantage of level safety
valve over the dead weight safety valve is that the heavy dead weight is
replaced by a lever with a smaller weight.
It consists of a valve resting over a
gun metal seat. The valve seat is fixed on a mounting block, fitted over the
boiler shell. One end of the level is hinged to a rod of the mounting block,
while the other end carries a weight. A short strut is placed over the valve.
The thrust of the lever with
its weight is transmitted to the valve by the strut. When the steam pressure
exceeds the safe limit, the upward thrust of steam lifts the valve from its
seat and the lever with its weight. The excess steam escapes till the pressure
falls back to the normal value. The valve then returns back to its original
closed position.
The required weight W at the
end of the lever for maintaining the pressure P in the boiler is obtained by
taking moments about the hinged point.
i.e., PaL1 = WL2
Where a = area of the valve
exposed to steam,
L1 = distance of valve centre
from the hinged point, and
L2 = distance of the centre
of the weight to the hinged point.
The lever safety valve is
used in stationary boilers only.