Typical "old-style" cylinder actuators can be RETROFITTED with K-TORK actuators

  You, the customers, have been the driving force to the success   we have had in the Municipal marketplace.

  In 1982, a major Texas city challenged us to retrofit existing   electric actuators in the City of Huntsville, Texas. The City   asked that we supply all engineering, adaptation parts, air   compressor, installation and start-up services for a “turnkey”   installation. That was twenty years ago and the City continues   to be a valued customer. They will report that over the twenty   year period not one spare part has been ordered for the valve   actuators.

  Over one hundred water and wastewater plants have utilized   our products and services since that first requests.
  

Why Pneumatic Actuators instead of Electric Actuators?
The evolution of valve actuation in the AWWA industry took a certain path for logical reasons. In the early stages of automating filter valves the controls were pneumatic and water hydraulic. Common sense dictated that the valve actuators should be compatible with controls and air-over-hydraulic actuators were designed to work with the pneumatic and hydraulic controls. This technology continued until the mid to late seventies. Electric controls emerged and common sense again said that electric actuators would be the most compatible because existing interface hardware for the air-over-hydraulic actuator was not available to communicate with the electric controls. This transition took away the independence and self-sufficient philosophy of the plant operating personnel. The easily understood piston actuators problems could be diagnosed and field repaired. Electric actuators cannot be field repaired by plant personnel. They had to be repaired by a factory serviceman or returned to the factory. The repair problem was not only costly, but created downtime during high water production months.

K-TORK vs. Electric Actuator Comparision

Fact: All filter galleries have experienced flooding.
Plant personnel faced the health hazards of high voltage short circuits and the eventual troublesome task of returning the actuators to the factory for repair, or replacement. The primary reason filter galleries flood is a power failure resulting in the electric actuator failing in their last position, not a fail-safe condition. K-TORK pneumatic actuators have the inherent ability to fail open, closed or in their last position. You choose what is best for your operation.

The K-TORK pneumatic actuator design is the world’s simplest design with only one moving part. K-TORK actuators will interface with all control systems including pneumatic, electrical and electronic. For twenty years we have applied this technology to the AWWA industry and have not supplied one spare actuator part. The K-TORK reputation for application design engineering, parts fabrication, installation supervision, three-year performance warranty and guaranteed results defines our true reason for being successful.

Back to Application