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Charlotte Stonestreet
Managing Editor |
Actuator upgrade
05 July 2013
Some of the very first valve actuators to carry the Rotork name are being replaced with the company’s latest intelligent IQ3 actuators after sixty years of unbroken service on a supersonic wind tunnel.

Although designed for isolating valves, original the Rotork 100A actuators have been performing modulating duties, altering the position of large gate valves by small degrees to control the wind speeds and provide data needed for test results. The automation of this process has necessitated the replacement of these units with new IQ3M actuators, specifically designed for modulating duties.
Careful and detailed planning ensured the retrofit could be completed in the brief periods of time available between test programmes. The first two actuators were removed and the replacement IQ3M actuators installed and commissioned in two days, half the allocated time allowed before the wind tunnel was due to re-start operations.
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