Celebrating the first 70 years of high quality, safety and performance with Valmet’s Jamesbury product offering

Dec 2, 2024

The premium performance Jamesbury™ solutions offer improved process efficiency and safety on proven and value-driven designs. Jamesbury solutions combine a wide range of valves, valve automation solutions, and services that exceed customer expectations for performance, value, and availability.

Jamesbury brand valves have always been recognized leaders in valve technology. For 70 years, and counting, the unique features have been field-proven to provide trouble-free-shut-off in thousands of applications like yours.

How did it all start?

In America a young inventor and entrepreneur, Howard G. Freeman (in the picture) had started his own experimental laboratory in the bedroom of his home on Jamesbury Drive in 1954. The work he carried out in that bedroom, and the company named after his street address would later become known as the origins of modern soft-seated valve technology. Technology that has served in the most critical operating environments, from submarines to space shuttles.

By 1960, Freeman’s company, Jamesbury™ had moved on from his home, and had already received their first patent for a bi-directional soft seated ball valve. In the seventies, they were busy churning out large numbers of their patented soft-seated butterfly valve, the Wafer-Sphere, at their Worcester, Massachusetts plant.

A testament to Jamesbury’s leadership in soft-sealed technology is the number of high-profile patent infringement suits they have been forced to file over the years. The most notable of these is often referred to as the “Teflon Wars” in which Jamesbury™ took on the US Government and eventually won after a 17-year legal battle. Instead of Teflon, the flexible seal of today’s Jamesbury Wafer-Sphere butterfly valves is made of a unique seating material known as Xtreme™.

Some interesting reference cases from the past:

1967 - Wafer-Sphere™ soft-seated butterfly valves lounced

A Jamesbury Wafer-Sphere™ butterfly valve, first launched in 1967.

1981 - Valves used in NASA's space shuttle pads

Huge Jamesbury Wafer-SphereTM butterfly valves are used to inject water at the base of NASA’s space shuttle pads to cushion the shock waves created during lift-off by massive solid rocket engines. Image: NASA

1997 - Hoover Dam equipped with Jamesbury™ valves

One of the biggest dams in the US, the Hoover dam, is equipped with assorted sizes of Jamesbury™ ball and butterfly valves. The valves are used in many ancillary systems within the dam. Image: U.S. Department of the Interior, The Bureau of Reclamation

Why choose Jamesbury high-performance valves and Jamesbury actuators?

Please visit this page Jamesbury™ product and service offering for more info on seat designs, the revolutionary Jamesbury Xtreme™ sealing technology, why the Jamesbury Wafer-Sphere™ high-performance butterfly valves are often a more cost-effective solution even for applications without high-performance service demands, and much more.

Jamesbury valves are suited for applications in pulp & paper, grain/corn processing, chemicals, petrochemicals, power, refining, steel, air separation, HVAC and more.

The name of the company has changed during the years, but one thing remains, Jamesbury products are all about providing safe, smooth and trouble-free operations for our customers.

Valmet’s valves, valve automation and pump technologies are known for quality, reliability, and highest safety. We serve variety of process industries, including pulp, paper and bioproducts, renewable energy, oil and gas refining, mining and metals processing, chemicals and other process industries. Our extensive portfolio consists of industry leading valves, valve automation solutions, pumps and related services, including the renowned Neles™, Neles Easyflow™, Jamesbury™, Stonel™, Valvcon™ and Flowrox™ solutions.

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