Patented QTRCO Rack & Gear and Flat Yoke actuators are designed with the goal that they will never fail. Several users are convinced that we achieved our goal
Guiding Principle - Don't focus on being the cheapest, do focus on being the lowest cost
QTRCO ACTUATORS are designed by founder Ed Holtgraver, whose philosophy is: "Design for simplicity, strive for infinite service life and - do not propogate existing deficient designs.
Following two years of product and supplier development, QTRCO first shipped actuators in June of 1998. Shawn Hughes was hired in August and immediately set out to spread word of a new concept actuator with promised performance improvement compared to then existing actuators. A new standard was established with companies, who remain as customers today, deciding to give this small niche market company a chance to show what it could do.
As described elsewhere on this site, QTRCO has left the niche market and now competes with the older well recognized names in the industry. Today we provide purchase price competitive ductile iron construction as well as all stainless steel with the intent that each will prove to be far less costly than competitor's actuators over the long haul, thereby improving our customer's profitability.
Perhaps of interest, when we designed the purposely unique Flat Yoke actuator it was after much thought as to how we would enter the higher torque market. Of course most higher torque actuators employ the scotch yoke mechanism as rack and pinion gearing becomes too costly to produce in large sizes. Assessing the market, it was obvious that there were many sources for scotch yoke actuators and the the world seemingly did not need another copy. Additionally, scotch yoke actuators, while providing a desireable torque characteristic, exhibit deficiencies related to extreme side loading of internal components. Bushings and proprietary seals experience significant friction and wear and the failure of even a low cost seal would result in huge maintenance expense and loss of revenue. Our goal was to retain all of the well proven features of our Rack & Gear actuators while finding a lower cost mechanism to convert linear motion to rotary in larger sizes. Eventually a sudden inspiration led to the Flat Yoke concept. A bit of solid modelling effort later, the concept was perfected - and the rest is history.
As it turns out, the balanced weight (lighter also) of the Flat Yoke design as well as the absence of internal seals cause it to have an excellent potential for severe service applications. One such application is in nuclear power plants where MTBF must be extended as much as possible. Here and in other challenging appplications, the reduced friction (and wear) and the absence of failure prone internal seals, promises far greater MTBF than available from other actuator designs. As the only pressured seals are the piston o-rings, chance of failure is reduced, but even here our design excels because - while the actuator remains mounted on the valve and the accessories remain untouched - the end cap and cylinder can be removed, the piston o-ring replaced and the actuator put back in service without having to rent lifting equipment or fight removal from the valve shaft (and not cause collateral damage to the valve). If contaminants have scratched the cylinder bore, turning it end for end provides a whole new sealing surface, effectively providing a spare cylinder on each end of the actuator.
