Yarway Welbond high-pressure globe valves — Yarway Corporation

Product Description

Yarway Welbond high-pressure globe valves were manufactured under the Yarway Corporation name and supplied throughout the period when asbestos was the routine sealing and insulating material in valve service. The Yarway Corporation catalog reached American industrial worksites, including power generation facilities, refineries, paper mills, shipyards, and major institutional construction projects.

According to asbestos litigation records, Yarway Welbond high-pressure globe valves were supplied to American industry through the period when asbestos was treated as the routine sealing and insulating material for high-temperature service. Yarway Corporation built its market position around durability and reliability under demanding conditions — the same operating envelope that drove asbestos use across the valve category well into the late 1970s.

Asbestos Content

Court filings document allegations that Yarway Welbond high-pressure globe valves incorporated asbestos in one or more of the structural roles common to valve of the era:

Compressed asbestos stem packing — Rings of compressed chrysotile packing were installed around valve stems to seal against process leakage. Plaintiffs alleged this packing was specified by the manufacturer’s own service literature and disturbed during routine maintenance.

Body, bonnet, and flange gaskets — Sheet-asbestos and spiral-wound gaskets sealed mating surfaces. Court filings document that mechanics regularly scraped these gaskets free of mating surfaces during overhaul, generating respirable fiber concentrations in the breathing zone.

Internal trim seals — Seat seals and back-seat packing in severe-service valves used asbestos-bearing materials capable of withstanding the operating envelope.

Adjacent thermal insulation — Where valves were specified into hot-service piping, insulators wrapped the valve body and adjacent piping in asbestos block or blanket insulation.

The asbestos in these components was not unique to Yarway Corporation; the materials in question were industry-standard well into the 1970s. The relevance to litigation lies in the volume of Yarway Welbond high-pressure globe valves installed across American worksites and the frequency with which those components were disturbed during ordinary maintenance.

How Workers Were Exposed

Workers most likely to have encountered asbestos through Yarway Welbond high-pressure globe valves include those whose trades brought them into routine contact with the equipment:

  • Pipefitters and steamfitters — installing, repairing, and repacking valves across steam, process, and utility systems
  • Boilermakers — tying valves into pressure piping at boiler outlets, headers, and feedwater stations
  • Machinists and millwrights — tearing down valves during scheduled outages and overhauling internal trim
  • Refinery and chemical-plant turnaround crews — servicing severe-service control and isolation valves
  • Shipyard workers — Navy yard and commercial-marine pipefitters installing valves in engineering spaces

Court filings document that bystander and take-home pathways were also common. Workers who did not directly handle Yarway Welbond high-pressure globe valves but who shared confined work areas with those who did were alleged to have inhaled the same airborne fibers. Family members were exposed through fibers carried home on contaminated work clothing — a pathway recognized in occupational medicine and asbestos litigation as take-home or secondary exposure.

The latency period for asbestos-related diseases — mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, and pleural disease — ranges from roughly ten to fifty years between initial exposure and diagnosis. Workers exposed through Yarway Welbond high-pressure globe valves during the 1940s through the early 1980s may only now be receiving diagnoses tied to that occupational history.

The current trust-fund and litigation status for products in the Yarway Corporation catalog is summarized on the manufacturer reference page linked at the top of this article. Where a Section 524(g) trust exists, claims may be filed in parallel with civil litigation against other defendants whose products contributed to the same exposure history. Where no trust exists, claims are pursued through the civil court system. Statute-of-limitations rules vary by state and disease type; the limitations clock generally begins at the time of diagnosis rather than the time of exposure.

Individuals who worked with or around Yarway Welbond high-pressure globe valves and have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease should preserve documentation of employment history, jobsites, and product identification, and consult an attorney experienced in asbestos claims promptly after diagnosis.

Documented Product Identification

The following details are drawn from public asbestos litigation records, manufacturer catalog pages, technical manuals, and corporate history materials. Each item reflects the product as documented in those sources.

Documented asbestos-use period: 1920s-mid 1980s

Corporate context: Formed in 1908 as Simplex Engineering Company. Purchased by Keystone International in the 1980s, then sold to Tyco International in 1997. Currently a subsidiary of Tyco Flow Control Group.

Documented asbestos components: gaskets, packing, insulation.

Documented asbestos-component suppliers: the public records lists the following external suppliers of asbestos-bearing packing, gaskets, and seals used in conjunction with this manufacturer’s equipment — Johns-Manville, Manhattan Asbestos.

Industries served: Power plants, Petroleum refining, Marine/Naval.

Naval / marine service: This manufacturer’s equipment is documented in connection with U.S. Navy and commercial-marine service.

Documented product lines:

  • Boiler trim valves (1930s-present). Valves used for servicing vents and drains within boilers — asbestos components: gaskets, packing.
  • Gauges (1945-1965). Gauges for viewing water levels within a boiler — asbestos components: gaskets, packing.
  • Indicator systems (1945-1965). Level indication equipment for boiler levels
  • Steam control valves (1945-present). Valves used for controlling steam flow — asbestos components: gaskets, packing.
  • Steam traps (1945-present). Devices used to remove condensate from steam systems — asbestos components: gaskets, packing.
  • Hand-operated globe valves. Manually operated globe valves supplied to petroleum industry and marine applications — asbestos components: gaskets, packing.

Yarway began transitioning from asbestos to expandable graphite components in 1982-1983, a process that took approximately 5 years to complete. On ships, Yarway products were always insulated and contained asbestos gaskets and packing.