Patent ID: 7516941

Claim:
A valve assembly comprising: a valve body, said valve body having an inlet, an outlet, and a chamber extending between said inlet and said outlet; an actuation sub-assembly having an actuator and a generally planar mounting member with a planar mounting surface and an opening, said actuator having a stem extending through said opening and said planar mounting surface of said mounting member, said actuation sub-assembly comprising an actuation sub-assembly selected from the group consisting of a manual actuation sub-assembly, a twist lock actuation sub-assembly, a gear actuation sub-assembly, an electric gear actuation sub-assembly, a handwheel gear actuation sub-assembly, a slow-close actuation sub-assembly, a pneumatic actuation sub-assembly, and a hydraulic actuation sub-assembly, and further said actuation subassembly along with said stem being removable from said valve body as a unit and being replaceable with another actuation sub-assembly along with its respective stem as a unit from the group consisting of the manual actuation sub-assembly, the twist lock actuation sub-assembly, the gear actuation sub-assembly, the electric gear actuation sub-assembly, the handwheel gear actuation sub-assembly, the slow-close actuation sub-assembly, the pneumatic actuation sub-assembly, and the hydraulic actuation sub-assembly; a valve ball having a ball body and a transverse passage extending through said ball body, said valve ball positioned in said chamber and being rotatable about an axis and positionable between a valve open position wherein said transverse passage provides fluid communication between said inlet and said outlet and a valve closed position wherein said ball body blocks the fluid communication between said inlet and said outlet, and said valve ball including an engagement surface for engagement by said stem; and wherein said valve body includes a valve body wall and a pair of mounting flanges for mounting said valve body in a fluid delivery system, said valve body wall having a planar portion and a cylindrical portion, said cylindrical portion extending between said inlet and said outlet, said planar portion of said valve body wall forming a planar mounting surface at said valve body for receiving said planar mounting surface of said mounting member and removably mounting said actuation sub-assembly to said valve body, said planar portion of said valve body wall being radially outwardly offset from said cylindrical portion of said valve body wall, and when said actuation sub-assembly is mounted to said valve body said stem being substantially coaxial with said axis and extending through said planar portion of said valve body wall for engagement with said engagement surface of said valve ball, and said valve body and said actuation sub-assembly being configured such that said actuation sub-assembly with said stem may be mounted to said valve body after said valve body is assembled and further may be removed along with said stem from said valve body without requiring disassembly of said valve body.