Product Description

The William Powell Company — universally known in the trade as Powell Valve and headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio since the nineteenth century — manufactured through the asbestos era a broad line of bronze and iron-body gate, globe, angle, and check valves for industrial steam service, refinery and chemical-plant process piping, power-plant auxiliary systems, and commercial marine and Navy shipboard use.

Powell Valve product families named in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation include:

  • Powell bronze bonnet gate and globe valves in the small- to medium-bore range for steam, condensate, and utility service.
  • Powell iron-body OS&Y and bolted-bonnet gate valves for larger-bore process and steam service.
  • Powell globe and angle stop valves for boiler and steam-header isolation and throttling.
  • Powell swing-check and lift-check valves for pump-discharge and header service.

Plaintiffs alleged that Powell valves were specified with:

  • Asbestos-containing stem packing — braided or ring-form chrysotile packing installed in the stuffing box against the rising stem.
  • Compressed asbestos-sheet bonnet gaskets at the bonnet-to-body joint, disturbed whenever the bonnet was pulled to access the disc or wedge.
  • Compressed asbestos-sheet flange gaskets at end-connection joints on flanged Powell valves.

This page addresses Powell Valve Company (Cincinnati) as a standalone Manufacturer Defendant; a template-era placeholder record for the same firm is preserved at the William Powell industrial valves page.

Workers Exposed

  • Pipefitters and steamfitters installing, repacking, and rebuilding Powell bronze and iron-body valves on plant steam, process, and utility piping.
  • Boilermakers working on Powell valves tied into boiler drums, superheater outlets, and steam headers.
  • Refinery and chemical-plant maintenance mechanics pulling Powell valve bonnets during turnarounds, scraping and replacing bonnet gaskets, and repacking stuffing boxes.
  • Shipyard pipefitters and Navy machinist’s mates installing and overhauling Powell valves in engine rooms, fireroom auxiliaries, and steam-plant piping on merchant and Navy vessels.