Our supplier just informed us, they are going to use solid ball for a 2" floater and a hollow ball for a 3" floater.will there be any difference in performance?what is the reason they use hollow balls in some cases and solid in some?I have not seen or heard of a hollow ball valve ball before. I would be a little concerned about this in some services. For example, we have historically accepted 316 SS balls in ball valves in sour service despite this material being quite limited by the current NACE MR0175/ISO 15156 document. I expect that the long history of successful service is directly related to the fact that the ball is a large solid chunk of metal and as such is in a very very low stress state.If you were to manufacture a hollow ball, the assumption of a low stress state may no longer hold and we could start to see sour cracking where none had been seen before.Myself, before I would accept a hollow ball, I'd want to ensure that the cost savings were being passed onto me and until there was some experience with them, I'd be a little wary of potentially unintended consequences as described above.Also, I wonder about the fire safety of the hollow ball? I'd want to ensure that the valve was fully tested under the current API 607 fire test standard. That is the kind of thing I meant when I said "If the manufacturer got all his sums right". There are probably a hundred important issues over and above what you or I could think of in a few minutes. If the manufacturer satisfied all the codes and is passing real cost savings on to the purchaser, then the valves will start to show up in parts houses. Some people will buy them and a history will start to build up. If there are no issues in the next 40-50 years then they'll "suddenly" be mainstream. Industries using ball valves are not exactly quick to adopt innovation.

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