Patent attributes
A knife gate valve including a knife valve gate, a gate actuation mechanism, operatively connected to the knife valve gate, a two-part sleeve and a valve body. The two-part sleeve includes an upstream section and a downstream section with the knife valve gate being selectively insertable therebetween. The valve body includes an upper casing section and a lower casing section pivotally connected to one another. The upper casing section and the lower casing section each include a concave cavity together defining a sleeve receiving channel of the valve body. The two-part sleeve is removably engageable in the sleeve receiving channel. The upper casing section and the lower casing section are pivotable between an operative configuration preventing removal of the two-part sleeve from the sleeve receiving channel and a maintenance configuration allowing insertion and removal of the two-part sleeve from the sleeve receiving channel.