White Paper :Ten Reasons to Consider Brushless DCV Motors in Electric Valve Actuators

This paper, courtesy of Flowserve Limitorque, aims to investigate the most recent advancements in these motors, consider alternatives, and discuss how to make an informed decision about when and where to use BLDC motor technologies.

Brushless DC motors are synchronous motors powered by a direct current source via an electric controller rather than the brush/commutator mechanism used in brushed DC motors. The electric controller, an integrated inverter/switching power supply, generates an alternating current signal that drives the rotor. Electronically commutated motors, ECMs, or EC motors are other names for them.

Brushless DC electric (BLDC) motors have been around for nearly 50 years, but their use for intelligent actuation is relatively new. Their adaptation is critical to the improvement of process control and plant safety systems.

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DOWNLOAD THE WHITE PAPER HERE

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How to Set the Position Limits on a Limitorque L120 Electric Actuator

The Flowserve Limitorque L120 electric actuator is designed for a wide range of environmental applications in power, oil & gas, and water industries.

The purpose of this instructional video to demonstrate the proper method of setting position limits on the Limitorque L120 electric actuator in a safe manner. Explore the video to learn correct equipment terminology, understand the wiring diagram with respect to the limit switch contact development and learn how to read the position of the limit switch.

Rugged, reliable and versatile, L120 actuators are proven performers in challenging applications. Thousands of L120 actuators are at work in some of the world’s most demanding conditions, where nothing less than day-after-day dependable operation is acceptable.

Petrochemical installations such as refineries, pipelines, terminals, tank farms, cokers and off-shore platforms rely on the L120’s safety, endurance and operational efficiencies. The L120 has network compatibility, explosion-proof certification, and resistance to lightning and EMI.

Power Generation plants value the L120’s availability, controls versatility and reliable performance. The L120’s rugged design and construction quality stands up to vibration, high-pressure steam and extreme temperatures.

Water and Waste Treatment Facilities benefit from the L120’s low-maintenance requirements and modulating control capabilities. L120 actuators meet AWWA standards and easily fit the industry trend toward modern controls networks. The wide range of options in the L120 Series allows specification needs to be met cost-effectively.

Mead O'Brien
https://meadobrien.com
(800) 892-2769

Leading Edge Electric Actuators - The Limitorque MXb

The Limitorque MXb electric actuator performs across a broad range of challenging applications where reliability is critical, including oil and gas; commercial power; chemical; fresh and wastewater; and general industries.

Improved reliability

The actuator's design isolates critical components, protecting them from electrical shock and interference, typical in extreme environments. High-quality materials extend actuator service life, operating ranges, and mean time between failure.

Enhanced user experience

An updated user interface coupled with a simplified, intuitive menu structure and larger, high-resolution LCD screen makes navigation easy and enables 50% faster commissioning, set-up, and operation. Users of any skill level can configure the actuator through various pre-configured or customization options for quick and error-free set-up and operation. A larger, higher-resolution LCD with a built-in ambient light sensor offers eight times the previous display's resolution to extend viewing distances up to 30 feet. Real-time torque graphs, alarm and event logs, and other data are accessible in higher-quality resolution.

Advanced diagnostics and analytics

The MXb electric actuator's next-generation diagnostics and analytics capabilities help operators monitor and track its performance and quickly respond to upset conditions. The MXb actuator has 500 times the previous MX model's memory capacity, allowing increased data capture and storage for higher degrees of process monitoring, data logging, and information feedback. Additionally, a real-time clock enables data log time stamping to support asset management functions and lifecycle analysis.

Simplified maintenance

A new electric connector design removes the need for brackets and hold-downs, making maintenance more straightforward and faster. And the enhanced connector design ensures robust connectivity throughout the rated seismic and vibration envelope.

For more information about the Limitorque MXb contact Mead O'Brien by calling (800) 892-2769 or visiting their website at https://meadobrien.com. 

White Paper: Intrusive vs. Non-Intrusive Electric Actuators: Which option is right for your installation?

Modern electric actuators offer a wide range of technologies and features, from basic motor controls to sophisticated electronic controls. Many choices are available, since no single design or feature set meets the needs of every application.

Actuators are motorized gear drives that control the operation of multi-turn valves, slide gates and dampers; or quarter-turn valves and dampers. Some actuators, including those compared in this paper, use electricity as a power source. Other types of actuators, such as those powered by hydraulic fluid or pneumatic pressure, are not addressed in this paper. Applications vary, requiring the user to select some form of actuator control system. Typical control systems range from simple electro-mechanical controls found in intrusive actuator designs, to solid-state electronic controls found in non-intrusive designs.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL WHITE PAPER HERE

Mead O'Brien
https://meadobrien.com
(800) 892-2769

Intrusive vs. Non-Intrusive Electric Actuators: Which option is right for your installation? from Mead O'Brien, Inc.

Electric Valve Actuation

Limitorque Electric Valve Actuator

Electric actuators use electrical power to actuate a valve. While most of the basic technology used in electric actuators has been around since the 1930s, decades of incremental improvement have significantly increased their functionality while dramatically reducing their cost. In recent years, these advances have reached a tipping point that makes electric actuators the first choice for a wide variety of applications.

Pros

• Electric power is relatively inexpensive, easy to manage, and normally available to most industrial sites. The capital cost of electric actuators is typically cheaper per equivalent unit of torque/thrust output. They’re also cleaner and safer to operate. 
• Electric actuators can provide superior positioning accuracy for control or modulating valve functions, which can include provisions for a high degree of process monitoring, data logging and information feedback. 
• All necessary control functions are integral to electric actuators, reducing capital costs. 
• Electric actuators significantly reduce control wiring costs by enabling distributed control. They simplify control logic by integrating control commands and feedback into customer SCADA or DCS systems. (Traditional electromechanical control systems require a dedicated wire for each command and feedback signal, leading to cable bundles with seven or more cores as minimum for each actuator. By contrast, a typical bus system can use one twisted pair wire in a daisy chain configuration to carry all required input and output signals.) 
• As torque and thrust requirements increase, electric actuators weigh less and have smaller footprints compared to pneumatic actuators. 
• Electric actuators may be combined with external gearboxes to produce extremely high output thrust and torque values.

Cons

• With the exception of a few specific configurations, electric actuators can’t guarantee a fail-safe stroke but will “fail in the last position.” (Fail-safe stroke refers to an actuator’s ability to move a valve to a predefined safe position when power fails).
• Electric actuators have more complex and sensitive components than the mechanical parts used in other types of actuators. Electronic technology also requires periodic refreshing to keep pace with component changes and improvements.
• Beyond a certain size/torque range, electric actuators are less cost-effective and generally have limitations in operating speed when compared to pneumatic and hydraulic actuators.
• In hazardous areas with potential exposure to explosive process media, electric actuators require more specific certifications and construction features to be considered safe for use.

Recommended applications

Electric actuation is the first choice for most oil and gas applications. They’re ideal for general process valve automation, non-critical applications, and light-duty modulating applications (generally up to 1200 starts per hour), although some can modulate continuously up to 3600 starts per hour.

Reprinted with permission from the Flowserve Limitorque white paper titled "Valve Actuation: The When, How and Why of Actuator Selection" which can be downloaded here.

Understanding Industrial Valve Actuators

Automated Pneumatic
Ball Valve (Jamesbury)

Valves are essential to industries which constitute the backbone of the modern world. The prevalence of valves in engineering, mechanics, and science demands that each individual valve performs to a certain standard. Just as the valve itself is a key component of a larger system, the valve actuator is as important to the valve as the valve is to the industry in which it functions. Actuators are powered mechanisms that position valves between open and closed states; the actuators are controllable either by manual control or as part of an automated control loop, where the actuator responds to a remote control signal. Depending on the valve and actuator combination, valves of different types can be closed, fully open, or somewhere in-between. Current actuation technology allows for remote indication of valve position, as well as other diagnostic and operational information. Regardless of its source of power, be it electric, hydraulic, pneumatic, or another, all actuators produce either linear or rotary motion under the command of a control source.

Thanks to actuators, multiple valves can be controlled in a process system in a coordinated fashion; imagine if, in a large industrial environment, engineers had to physically adjust every valve via a hand wheel or lever! While that manual arrangement may create jobs, it is, unfortunately, completely impractical from a logistical and economic perspective. Actuators enable automation to be applied to valve operation.

Pneumatic actuator
(Jamesbury Quadra-Powr) 

Pneumatic actuators utilize air pressure as the motive force which changes the position of a valve. Pressurized-liquid reliant devices are known as hydraulic actuators. Electric actuators, either motor driven or solenoid operated, rely on electric power to drive the valve trim into position. With controllers constantly monitoring a process, evaluating inputs, changes in valve position can be remotely controlled to provide the needed response to maintain the desired process condition.

Manual operation and regulation of valves is becoming less prevalent as automation continues to gain traction throughout every industry. Valve actuators serve as the interface between the control intelligence and the physical movement of the valve. The timeliness and automation advantages of the valve actuators also serve as an immense help in risk mitigation, where, as long as the system is functioning correctly, critical calamities in either environmental conditions or to a facility can be pre-empted and quickly prevented. Generally speaking, manual actuators rely on hand operation of levers, gears, or wheels, but valves which are frequently changed (or which exist in remote areas) benefit from an automatic actuator with an external power source for a myriad of practical reasons, most pressingly being located in an area mostly impractical for manual operation or complicated by hazardous conditions.

Electric Actuator
(Limitorque)

Thanks to their versatility and stratified uses, actuators serve as industrial keystones to, arguably, one of the most important control elements of industries around the world. Just as industries are the backbones of societies, valves are key building blocks to industrial processes, with actuators as an invaluable device ensuring both safe and precise operation.

BIST (Built-in-Self-Test) Features for Electronic Valve Actuators

Electric actuator (Limittorque)

Abstract

The development and implementation of safety related devices in plant systems is crucial for dependable operation, not to mention peace of mind. Safety and safe operation were once only high priorities for installations that involve hazardous environments. Expensive certification testing was, and still is, paramount to meeting the hazards of such environments, but a new level of plant-wide integrity is emerging — that of Safety Integrity Level (SIL) and SIS. SIL is a safety rating that can be derived by analyzing a system to determine the risk of a failure occurring and the severity of its consequences. Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) are systems containing instrumentation or controls installed for the purpose of preventing or mitigating a failure either by emergency shut down (ESD) or diverting the hazard. New or replacement equipment must have the ability to be introduced into plant systems without jeopardizing either the SIL of the operation or negatively impacting the SIS.

Read the entire white paper below.

For more information visit this link or contact:

Mead O'Brien
www.meadobrien.com

(800) 892-2769

BIST (Built-in-Self-Test) Features for Electronic Valve Actuators from Mead O'Brien, Inc.

Theory of Operation for MOVs (Motor Operated Valves)

Limitorque SMB MOV

This presentation, provided by the NRC, provides an introductory look at motor operated valves, with a focus on the manufacturer Limitorque. The document includes the theory of operation of MOVs, plus descriptions of valve types, such as gate, globe, ball, plug and butterfly.

This document also provides detailed descriptions of Limitorque SMB actuators and Limitorque SB actuators with full assembly and subassembly breakdown and illustrations.

NRC Course on Motor Operated Valves and Limitorque from Mead O'Brien, Inc.

Document provided by NRC.gov

Product Update - New Valve Actuator Series From Limitorque

New Limitorque CEA Series Valve Actuator
Courtesy Flowserve Corp.

Industrial process control encompasses a broad range of fluid handling operations. A significant part of fluid control is accomplished by valves, many of which are operated automatically through the use of actuators. Actuators are mounted on valves in place of, or in addition to, a handwheel, lever, or other manual means of opening and closing the valve. With an actuator installed, a control signal can be transmitted from a remote source to the actuator, commanding a change in valve position, and the actuator will respond by converting some form of connected energy into mechanical motion that positions the valve accordingly.

Modern actuators are increasingly endowed with functions that provide information to the process operator, closing the loop with feedback that confirms the valve position, suitability of the energy supply to the actuator, and a range of other specialized data points.

An eternal desire of all process operators is a reduction in whatever level of maintenance that is currently required to keep everything operating. Maintenance is costly and time consuming, a set of many specialized tasks, each with a probability of not being completed properly.

Flowserve Corporation, under their well known Limitorque brand, has designed and launched a new series of electric actuators, the CEA Series, that provide real benefits for operation and maintenance in light-to-medium duty applications. Some of the highlights....

• Auto calibration and a user-friendly HMI provide optimized commissioning. Standard diagnostics include torque monitoring and actuator temperature, with early warning detection of undesirable conditions and an alarm output.
• Application specific brushless DC motors and worm gear drives reduce downtime. Tests have demonstrated reliability of up to 250,000 cycles. Modulating service can provide 1800 starts per hour with 0.1% position accuracy.
• Suitable for applications with rotary duty requirements of 90 and 180 degrees, as well as multi-turn duty to 20 turns.
• Available through a network of professional industrial process control distributors, with application assistance and product expertise.
• CEA is fully qualified to NEMA Type 4, 4X and6, IP66/68 Class 1, Div 1 and 2, Gps B,C,D (CSA,FM) and ATEX II 2G Ex d IIB +H2 T4: IECEx II 2G Ex d IIB +H2 T4.

The CEA actuator is available in seven sizes and five variants, serving torque requirements up to 15,000 in-lbs (1695 Nm). Contact a product specialist to find out more about this new product and discuss your potential applications.

Limitorque CEA Actuator Data Sheet from Mead O'Brien, Inc.