Product Description
Kennedy Valve Company (Elmira, New York — originally Kennedy Valve Manufacturing Company) produced through the asbestos era a broad line of iron-body gate valves, outside-screw-and-yoke (OS&Y) gate valves, resilient-wedge gate valves, check valves, indicator posts, and dry-barrel fire hydrant valves for municipal waterworks, industrial process piping, and NFPA fire-protection systems.
Kennedy Valve has been named as a Manufacturer Defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation. Plaintiffs alleged that Kennedy iron-body valves were specified with:
- Asbestos-containing stem packing — braided or ring-form chrysotile packing installed in the valve stuffing box against the rising stem to seal against process leakage.
- Compressed asbestos-sheet bonnet gaskets at the bonnet-to-body joint on gate and check valves, disturbed whenever the bonnet was pulled to access internals.
- Compressed asbestos-sheet body and flange gaskets at wafer, flanged, and end-connection joints.
Kennedy Valve fire hydrant valves and OS&Y gate valves were installed in large volume across municipal water utilities, industrial plant fire-water loops, and commercial/institutional sprinkler risers, and are frequently identified in plaintiffs’ fact-witness testimony describing valve-repack and bonnet-gasket work.
Workers Exposed
- Pipefitters and steamfitters installing and repacking Kennedy gate valves on industrial process, cooling-water, and steam lines.
- Municipal-water plant operators and distribution-system crews overhauling Kennedy iron-body gate valves and fire hydrants in the field and in valve shops.
- Fire-protection contractors and sprinkler fitters installing and servicing Kennedy OS&Y gate valves, indicator posts, and fire-service check valves.
- Plant millwrights and maintenance mechanics pulling Kennedy valve bonnets during scheduled outages, scraping and replacing bonnet gaskets, and repacking stuffing boxes.