Pressure-control valves are found in virtually every hydraulic system, and they assist in a variety of functions, from keeping system pressures safely below a desired upper limit to maintaining a set pressure in part of a circuit. Types include relief, reducing, sequence, counterbalance, and unloading. All of these are normally closed valves, except for reducing valves, which are normally open. For most of these valves, a restriction is necessary to produce the required pressure control. One exception is the externally piloted unloading valve, which depends on an external signal for its actuation.
