New Flowserve Heavy-Duty Actuator Extends Cycle Life and Reduces Maintenance
New actuator from Flowserve offers customers the opportunity to realize savings through an extended cycle life and reduced maintenance costs.
DALLAS, November 10, 2009 — Flowserve Corporation (NYSE: FLS), a leading provider of flow control products and services for the global infrastructure markets, today unveiled the new Flowserve Automax RG Series Heavy-Duty Scotch Yoke Pneumatic Actuator. The new actuator offers customers the opportunity to realize savings through an extended cycle life and reduced maintenance costs. Most importantly, plant and personnel safety is enhanced due to the RG’s design, which is compliant to IEC 61508 (Functional Safety Related Systems) Safety Integrity Level 3. This Safety Standard emphasizes that the quality and reliability of the equipment forming the safety system are key to the prevention of failure
“The IP67M (temporary submersion) rating and marine-grade epoxy-surface treatment ensures optimal ingress environmental protection when installed in harsh corrosive atmospheres such as offshore installations,” said Don Weeks, Product Portfolio Manager, Flowserve Flow Control Division. “The goal of the RG design is to extend and protect the customer’s capital investment which can reduce the cost of ownership for the product life cycle.”
The new Automax RG-Series features a modular design; the body, pneumatic and spring segments are independent modules. The pneumatic and spring modules can easily be changed on site to modify the actuator torque output and fail rotation direction. Without this feature, a new actuator must be purchased to make these changes. With a pull-to-compress spring module, manual overrides can easily be added for spring-return or double-acting requirements. These features can minimize customer maintenance budgets by reducing product modification and installation time.
The symmetrical body design enables interchangeability of spring and pressure modules. The pressure-module piston incorporates dual-wear bands and dynamic-quad seals; dual wear bands provide forward wiping action which can extend quad seal life. Inside the pressure and torque module, critical sealing and load bearing surfaces are honed and hard-chrome plated to reduce surface wear and increase corrosion resistance. Both features can further extend actuator cycle life.
The new hard-chrome plated steel guide bar provides optimal support of the transverse loads. Coupling the yoke are new aluminum bronze slider blocks that minimize contact stress and ensure high-cycle life. Combining these key technologies results in extended automation life cycle to increase production up time and reduce maintenance costs.
The Automax RG-Series is lighter and has a smaller dimensional envelope for ease of installation and reduced cost. It represents a 20 percent weight reduction and a 20 percent end-to-end length reduction compared to previous designs. The actuator features an expanded torque output range of 2.2 million inch/pounds (248,566 Newton Meters). The availability of more than 100 output torque profiles optimizes valve automation selection and reduces the weight, size and cost of the actuator.
The actuator conforms to global mounting and accessory mounting standards including International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 5211 valve interface with MSS option and NAMUR VDI/VDE 3845 compliance.
The Automax RG Series can be used in quarter-turn automation applications for ball, plug, and butterfly valves and rotary dampers in chemical, refining, oil and gas and general industrial applications. Scotch yoke actuators create torque with a mechanical advantage and are most often used when valve torque exceeds rack-and-pinion actuator designs. The Scotch yoke mechanism converts linear motion (force) to rotational motion (torque), producing 90 degrees or more of rotation.
For more information about the Flowserve Automax RG Series, please call a Flowserve sales representative at (800) 225-6989.
About Flowserve Corp.
Flowserve Corp. is one of the world’s leading providers of fluid motion and control products and services. Operating in more than 55 countries, the company produces engineered and industrial pumps, seals and valves, as well as a range of related flow management services. More information about Flowserve can be obtained by visiting the company’s Web site at www.flowserve.com.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT:
This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Words or phrases such as, “may,” “should,” “expects,” “could,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “believes,” “predicts” or other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which include, without limitation, earnings forecasts, statements relating to our business strategy and statements of expectations, beliefs, future plans and strategies and anticipated developments concerning our industry, business, operations and financial performance and condition.
The forward-looking statements included in this news release are based on our current expectations, projections, estimates and assumptions. These statements are only predictions, not guarantees. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. These risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from what is forecast in such forward-looking statements, and include, without limitation, the following: a portion of our bookings may not lead to completed sales, and our ability to convert bookings into revenues at acceptable profit margins; risks associated with cost overruns on fixed-fee projects and in taking customer orders for large complex custom engineered products requiring sophisticated program management skills and technical expertise for completion; the substantial dependence of our sales on the success of the petroleum, chemical, power and water industries; the adverse impact of volatile raw materials prices on our products and operating margins; economic, political and other risks associated with our international operations, including military actions or trade embargoes that could affect customer markets, particularly Middle Eastern markets and global petroleum producers, and non-compliance with U.S. export/re-export control, foreign corrupt practice laws, economic sanctions and import laws and regulations; our furnishing of products and services to nuclear power plant facilities; potential adverse consequences resulting from litigation to which we are a party, such as litigation involving asbestos-containing material claims; a foreign government investigation regarding our participation in the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program; risks associated with certain of our foreign subsidiaries conducting business operations and sales in certain countries that have been identified by the U.S. State Department as state sponsors of terrorism; our relative geographical profitability and its impact on our utilization of deferred tax assets, including foreign tax credits, and tax liabilities that could result from audits of our tax returns by regulatory authorities in various tax jurisdictions; the potential adverse impact of an impairment in the carrying value of goodwill or other intangibles; our dependence upon third-party suppliers whose failure to perform timely could adversely affect our business operations; our dependence on our customers’ ability to make required capital investment and maintenance expenditures; the highly competitive nature of the markets in which we operate; environmental compliance costs and liabilities; potential work stoppages and other labor matters; our inability to protect our intellectual property in the U.S., as well as in foreign countries; obligations under our defined benefit pension plans; and other factors described from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
All forward-looking statements included in this news release are based on information available to us on the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
Media Contact: Haley Beck, (513) 346-3443, haley.beck@gyrohsr.com