02-12-2024

Celebrating the first 70 years with Jamesbury product offering

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
- 1981: Valves used in NASA's space shuttle pads
- 1997: Hoover Dam equipped with Jamesbury™ valves

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.

David Bayreuther
Director, Ball Valves Product Line
FC Products and Solutions, Valmet