QTRPAQ Design Details - A few of the many successful QTRPAQ applications

Brine

A brine supplier in Houston had tried numerous actuators in an attempt to avoid the corrosion caused failures they were regularly experiencing. In 2002 they installed their first QTRCO double acting Q-series actuator. This has been followed by dozens of additional QTRCO actuators.

The result was spectacular with no corrosion or other failures of any QTRCO actuator. QTRCO has become they standard actuator based on performance and service and has led to an interesting questions put to our CEO by a key person "whatever caused you to design such a good product?"

This is a corrosive, double acting application.

Power

A power plant near Paducah, KY needed a reasonable size actuator to automate several 2" metal seated ball valves used as drain valves on their boiler feed pumps. The problem was their having only 40 psig supply pressure to the actuators.

Q SE actuators, using tandem piston technology provided for 100 psi spring output torque by applying the 40 psig to a "stack" of 3 tandem pistons.

Now in service for as many as 5 years, the 30 actuators continue to provide uninterrupted positioner throttled service.

For this application corrosion resistance took second place to the need for a compact actuator that would provide throttling operation with only 40 psig supply.

Catalyst Plant

A catalyst company near Houston already had a large number of a competitor's SS actuator installed when they installed their first SR QTRCO SS actuator in early 1999. This was followed by several other Q actuators and subsequently a full standardization on QTRCO based on their performance.

Over 300 QTRCO actuators have been installed over the years and through August 2006 they have not yet experienced a failure.

Corrosion problems were they reason this plant selected SS actuators but competitor actuator issues led to trying QTRCO. The engineer responsible for the maintenance budget explains that their maintenance expenditures are lower than their sister plants, and that QTRCO is a significant contributor to that.

Food and Beverage

A meat processor in Wisconsin was using double acting vane type actuators to operate 3" ball valves. Opening speed could be approximately one second but closing speed had to be very fast and repetitive for the process to operate properly.

The high speed was causing rapid failure of the aluminum vane actuator housing. In addition the high speed caused a loud air exhaust noise both when opening and closing the valve which occurred approximately 120,000 times per week for each of several valves in a reasonably small area. Operating personnel were exposed to high noise levels, while the maintenance budget was strained by the cost of regular actuator replacement.

A Q07SR with 3/8" ports was tested for many months before a decision was made to replace all of the existing actuators with QTRCO's. The test results showed a consistent closure time of 0.2 seconds and an opening time of ¾ seconds with no failure over the length of the test.

A pleasant surprise was that the single air exhaust per cycle for the SR actuator versus the 2 per cycle of the DA type meant that ½ of the air noise was eliminated. Even better the Q07SR closure was so fast that it was possible to add an exhaust muffler that practically eliminated all operational noise such that one soft 'pop' is heard every cycle rather than two hard 'bangs'.

Experience has demonstrated the QTRCO actuators ability to provide millions and millions of cycles in this application.

Ruggedness, quietness and high cycle capabilities drove the selection of QTRCO actuators.

Chemicals

A chemical company near Richmond VA installed 32 Q SR actuators on a new filtration unit in early 2002 to operate HPBV's at a rate of one full cycle every 10 seconds -continuously. At 2 years and 10 months after initial operation, a spring broke in one of the actuators and QTRCO, as per our 3 years performance warranty, provided a new actuator. Now more than 4 years after installation and with several million cycles of operation only the one failure occurred.

Long life and high cycle capability was the reason for selecting QTRCO actuators.

Gas Turbines

A manufacturer of gas turbines needed a rugged actuator that would close their main fuel supply valve more quickly then the 0.6 seconds that highly modified R&P actuators they were using. By opening our end cap air ports to ¾" NPT, our Q07SR actuator demonstrated it would close their valve in only 0.1 second.

Since late 1998, over 4,000 Q actuators have been installed in various applications by this manufacturer. To our knowledge they have not yet experienced their first QTRCO failure or service outage.

High speed and long life are the driving force for using QTRCO actuators in this application.

Chemicals

A chemical company in KY operates with only 40 psig instrument air pressure available and forced need of extremely large spring return actuators top operate high torque plug valves. Using our tandem piston technology, QTRCO reduced the actuator sizes and was able to fit the space available.

This is a low supply pressure application.

Compressors

A manufacturer of large compressors was seeking a replacement for too large and heavy diaphragm actuators in a linear stroke application. QTRCO proposed a spring return piston design at less then ½ the size and weight. Using 50 psig supply the new actuator produces the same push and pull forces as the diaphragm actuator.

Following months and many thousands of test cycles, the user decided to adopt the QTRCO solution, employing the QTRCO actuator beginning in early 2006.

This is a unique solution to a user problem and employs numerous QTRCO components plus a fiberglass cylinder and steel end caps.