Usually, a manual operated valve is only used in applications where the valve is rarely needed, for example as an additional emergency valve, or if for safety reasons an operator needs to be on sin. during valve operation - as can be the case for tank trucks.

The simplest design of a manual actuator is a hand lever mounted on the head flange of the valve. There are different designs of hand levers available, ranging from the simple on/off-position levers and different ratchet levers to continuous adjustment levers. For larger valves or for the self-locking function (no twisting of valve shaft possible from output), there are manually operated gearboxes with higher torques. For higher manual torque requirements, the transmission of torque is usually made by a com.pact-size self-locking worm gear box.