Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | KZ is a company that makes a variety of valves for agricultural use. They have a wide selection of valves that can be used in a variety of situations.
Rather than reinvent the wheel, Raven and others decided to make a motor drive assembly for the Jamesbury hand valve that was already in production for use with their NH3 systems. The Jamesbury hand valve was replaced with a motor and circuit board. A similar approach was used with certain hydraulic valves where a motor drive assembly was created to mount on hydraulic valves from other companies that were already in production.
At one point in time (maybe still so), the Raven motor assemblies had a high failure rate due to condensation on the circuit board. KZ noted this market and created a Raven replacement kit. It consists of a KZ motor and circuit board assembly that mounts on the Jamesbury valve body and uses the Raven style connector and wiring pattern.
This makes it easy to replace the Raven motor with the KZ replacement motor assemblies. The KZ motor assemblies were available to replace many of the popular motor assemblies for the Raven FAST valves the Raven Standard control valves and the Raven On/Off valves as well as others.
Here's a link to the NH3 section on the KZ website. Scroll down to see the Raven replacement series.
https://idex.cachefly.net/KZV/KZValve_Catalog.pdf#page=44
Now with all this being said. The 10630172979 tag on your valve would seem to indicate that you have the so called single valve or Fast close valve. This would mean your system has a single valve that handles both the rate control and the ON/OFF function in one valve.
Another option which I and others will STRONGLY suggest is the two valve system. It consists of two separate valves that may appear identical from outside appearances.
This was the original layout which has a control valve whose purpose is to control the rate. Its motor is geared down considerably and takes about 8 seconds to go from fully open to fully closed. It is purposely designed this way so the system can make minor changes in the flow as it attempts to get the applied rate to agree with the target rate. The second valve is referred to as an ON/OFF valve. The only purpose of this valve is the On/Off function. It should go from fully open to fully closed very rapidly.
This means in normal operation, the On/Off valve is either fully open or fully closed. The control valve which is plumbed ahead of it is typically in a partially open position to control the flow. When the system is turned Off, the control valve does not move and is thus in the best guess position when application resumes. The system can then make minor increase/decrease adjustments from there. This results in a much smoother, more predictable and reliable system.
Raven NH3 systems were setup this way for many years. At one point in time, Raven decided to offer a single valve system to reduce the cost of a system. I believe this is what you have. The two valve system was still a better option.
Rather than use two valves, they use a single valve. This valve needs to handle both rate control and the On/Off function. This means the motor cannot be geared down like the regular On/Off valve otherwise it would take too long to open or close completely. On the other hand, it is difficult to turn the motor just a slight amount without the gearing to adjust the flow slightly. To accomplish this the controller must be made aware of the type of valve being used so that it can behave accordingly. One one hand, it must give very short "shots" of correction to open or close the valve a small amount but yet give full power to open or close the valve when application starts or stops. When application starts, the Fast valve must open until the rate exceeds the target rate and then back down. This arrangement can result in oscillation and difficulty with control at lower rates.
Now would be an excellent time to switch to a two valve system. Others will likely disagree but my personal experience both as a farmer and a Tech confirms my suggestions.
Edited by tedbear 2/25/2025 11:06
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