Product Description

Yarway Corporation manufactured a broad line of industrial flow-control equipment from the early twentieth century through the late 1970s and into the 1980s. The company’s product catalog included control valves, steam traps, pressure-reducing valves, drip traps, and related accessories designed for use in high-temperature, high-pressure steam and fluid systems. Yarway equipment was widely installed across heavy industrial environments, including petroleum refineries, chemical processing plants, power generation facilities, paper mills, shipyards, and manufacturing complexes throughout the United States and internationally.

Steam traps and control valves of this era were integral components of steam distribution and process piping systems. They regulated flow, captured condensate, and maintained pressure differentials across complex industrial networks. Because these systems operated under extreme thermal and mechanical stress, the internal sealing components — particularly valve packing and gaskets — required materials capable of withstanding continuous heat, pressure cycling, and chemical exposure. During the period from approximately 1920 to 1980, chrysotile asbestos was a widely used material in these sealing applications, and Yarway products were manufactured and sold with asbestos-containing components incorporated into their design.

Asbestos Content

Yarway control valves and steam traps produced during the covered period contained chrysotile asbestos in two primary locations: valve stem packing and internal gaskets. Chrysotile, also known as white asbestos, is a serpentine-form mineral fiber that was favored in industrial sealing applications because of its flexibility, heat resistance, and resistance to steam and chemical degradation.

Valve packing refers to the compressed fibrous or braided material installed in the stuffing box of a valve, surrounding the valve stem. This packing creates a pressure-tight seal that prevents process fluid or steam from escaping around the moving stem. In Yarway valves produced through the late 1970s, this packing material was composed in whole or in significant part of chrysotile asbestos fibers, either woven into braided rope-style packing or compressed into pre-formed rings.

Internal gaskets — sheet or ring-form sealing components placed at flanged connections, bonnets, and body joints within the valve assembly — similarly incorporated chrysotile asbestos in compressed sheet form. These gaskets were specified to resist the temperatures and pressures encountered in steam service, for which asbestos-containing compressed sheet materials were considered a standard industry solution during this era.

Product specifications, parts documentation, and maintenance manuals associated with Yarway equipment from this period reference asbestos-containing replacement components as the intended service parts for these sealing applications.

How Workers Were Exposed

Workers in industrial facilities were exposed to asbestos fibers released from Yarway control valves and steam traps during several distinct phases of the equipment’s service life: initial installation, routine maintenance, repacking operations, and removal or replacement.

Initial Installation and System Commissioning: During installation, workers cut, fitted, and compressed gaskets to mate flanged valve bodies with adjacent piping. Trimming compressed asbestos sheet gaskets to fit specific configurations released airborne fibers in the immediate work area.

Routine Valve Repacking: Steam and control valves require periodic repacking as the stuffing box packing wears or hardens over time. Repacking operations required workers to remove the valve bonnet or stuffing box gland, extract old packing material, clean the stuffing box bore, and install new packing. Removing hardened or degraded asbestos packing — often using picks, awls, wire brushes, or compressed air — generated concentrated releases of asbestos fiber. Cutting new braided asbestos packing to length and forming it around the valve stem introduced additional exposure.

Steam Trap Maintenance: Yarway steam traps required periodic disassembly for internal inspection, cleaning, and replacement of worn components. Opening trap bodies at gasketed joints and replacing internal gaskets disturbed asbestos-containing sealing materials and released fibers into the breathing zones of pipefitters, steamfitters, and maintenance personnel performing the work.

Bystander Exposure: Litigation records document allegations that workers in the vicinity of valve maintenance operations — including other tradespeople, helpers, and general industrial laborers — were exposed to asbestos fibers released during repacking and gasket work performed by others, even when they were not directly involved in the task.

Housekeeping and Cleanup: Workers tasked with cleaning up debris from maintenance operations, including spent packing material and gasket remnants, also encountered asbestos-containing waste. Dry sweeping or handling of this material without adequate controls could generate secondary fiber releases.

The industrial trades most commonly identified in litigation involving Yarway products include pipefitters, steamfitters, boilermakers, millwrights, refinery operators, power plant maintenance workers, and shipyard laborers — occupational groups that routinely worked on or adjacent to steam and process valve systems over extended careers in facilities where Yarway equipment was in service.

Yarway Corporation has been named as a defendant in asbestos personal injury litigation filed in courts across the United States. There is no active Yarway-specific asbestos bankruptcy trust fund available for claims at this time.

Litigation History: Litigation records document that plaintiffs diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma, asbestosis, and asbestos-related lung cancer, have alleged occupational exposure to asbestos-containing valve packing and gaskets manufactured and sold by Yarway. Plaintiffs alleged that Yarway knew or should have known that the chrysotile asbestos incorporated into its valve packing and gasket products posed a foreseeable health hazard to workers who installed, maintained, and repacked these valves, and that the company failed to provide adequate warnings or instructions for safe handling.

Litigation records document claims brought by industrial workers and their surviving family members against Yarway and related corporate successors. Cases have been filed in state and federal asbestos dockets, often as part of multi-defendant actions involving numerous valve, gasket, and insulation manufacturers whose products were used in the same facilities.

Legal Remedies for Affected Workers: Individuals diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or other asbestos-related conditions who have a documented history of working with or around Yarway control valves or steam traps should consult an attorney experienced in asbestos litigation. An attorney can evaluate exposure history, identify applicable defendants and insurance coverage, and assess eligibility for civil claims against Yarway’s corporate successors or related entities.

Because Yarway products were typically installed alongside equipment manufactured by numerous other companies, claimants may also have viable claims against other product manufacturers, potentially including access to multiple asbestos bankruptcy trust funds established by other defendants in their exposure history. A thorough occupational exposure review is essential to identifying the full range of available legal remedies.

The applicable statute of limitations for asbestos personal injury claims varies by state and generally runs from the date of diagnosis rather than the date of exposure. Prompt legal consultation following a diagnosis of an asbestos-related disease is strongly recommended to preserve all available legal rights.