The Saunders tank bottom valve incorporates the performance and features of a diaphragm valve into a machined from solid tank outlet design. These valves are free from fabrication welds and dead legs, enhancing structural integrity and reducing the potential for process contamination. The absence of dead legs also improves drainability, and facilitates effective mixing.

Sample valves, purge valves and ports are easily incorporated into the tank bottom design to achieve the desired performance.

The resulting valve types are a hybrid or compound solution that entails the use of more than one valve concept; for example, combining a tank bottom valve with an access valve, a multi-port valve with access valves to perform as steam and condensate port or a point-of-use valve together with a sample valve. It is possible, using this process and valves from FlowTherm and Saunders, to create custom valve configurations that combine utility and performance.