THE MANUFACTURERS VOICE

Process Control Valve operation under power shut-down / blackout conditions

f we consider a process installation for example a water treatment plant, refiner y, sugar processing plant and so on we face problems if there should be, for any reason, a failure in the power supply. It could be due to electricity failure e.g. as a result of weather conditions or a drop in the power supply, pneumatic air failure caused by faulty design, air tube damage and so on. This ar ticle looks at some current technologies and where we need to take care by designing and selecting the appropriate technology. The design of electric actuators for process control valves is based on more than 50 years experience in the field so we already have more or less advanced features available. All actuators are fitted with a manual override. These are either designed for permanent use (see figure 1) or with infrequent use (see figure 2). The correct actuators need to be selected for their intended use. We need to ascertain whether the actuator will be used frequently for manual operation or just once in a while. For the design of the electric drives manual override I do not intend to go into this too deeply in this article as it is a well known technology (please feel free to contact me by e-mail, however, if you would like me to return to this topic in a later issue of Valve World). A more neglected field has been the pneumatic process actuator side. Generally, pneumatic energy itself is a secondary level energy which can be stored for a certain period and is, by itself, more or less failsafe.Therefore many installations rely on the stored compressed air to have the process under control, even during a power failure in the air compressor system for several hours.This is definitely the best solution to stabilise a

Figure 1

process in a safety position there is no doubt about that! Just imagine having to set a number of pneumatic actuators manually in a safety position? Nevertheless there are some reasons to consider manual overrides in addition! After several years in the process business, every one of us has had experience during commissioning of there being no electricity available which means waiting until the power for the pneumatic drives becomes available OR having a manual override on the individual actuators available to at least have the possibility of adjusting the process actuators together with the valves and/or do segment wise start-up of the process itself by opening and closing the process valves manually. Another reason, whilst we are talking PRO manual override, is a malfunction of the equipment itself this could be a damaged piece of air supply pipe/tube, damaged connection

thread / fitting, maintenance on the valve set having no air supply available to name but some. Because of the reason described above pneumatic air being a secondary level energy the manual override was not always not considered to be very important and therefore the solutions werent made very sophisticated until now! Mainly they were made by adding just a simple gearbox between the Process Valve and the actuator (see figure 3). This solution offers a manual hand-wheel, but it does have several problems such as: alignment failures as we see 3 interfaces with adding tolerances to the vertical alignment

Figure 3

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March 2010

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THE MANUFACTURERS VOICE

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size matters requires a clutch to engage/disengage the gearbox material selection for corrosive atmospheres price & costs for the whole unit and last, but not least, the problem of using in explosive areas Another option in the past was to simply attach a manual lever to the actuator shaft which causes severe damage to the drive shaft of the actuator, especially if the shaft is made of aluminium or equivalent materials therefore I do not propose to look too deeply at this technology (see the application figure 4 in a palm oil application). Some may say it will increase the spare-part supply! Lately we have seen in the market a better option which goes in the direction of the e-drives, a perfectly incorporated manual override inside the pneumatic drive itself (see figure-5). This option eliminates the problems usually

caused by the gearbox version. The force to PUSH & PULL the actuator in either ON or OFF position is directly indicated on the piston without the fluctuation failures and with a much smaller space demand and easy access (see Figure-6). This version is also applicable for the double acting as well as for the single acting drives with spring return fail-safe action. No wear & tear on the shaft with unacceptable side load to the valve/actuator drive shaft assembly. Careful note must be taken on the technique inside the actuator. Special attention must be give to the way of indicating the force of the manual drive to the piston! The design must be done in a way so that the force is indicated to most of the surface of the piston so as to avoid

damage to the material as it occurs by punctual implementation! Explosive safety is guaranteed as well and maintenance is not excessive for those units. The advantages are immediately evident: small size extension of the valve/actuator set limited force indicated by the handwheel no possible damage to the valve and actuator visual direct indication of the position low friction losses during operation (manual) no additional corrosion problems an explosive safe unit as per basic lay-out of the actuator and many more... There is, however, one disadvantage which needs a special mention: As with all these solutions, the hand-wheel must be set after the manual operation in the neutral position to guarantee the automatic function afterwards. Failure to do this will result in the loss of the set valve operation. It is essential to bring the manual unit to the NEUTRAL position. One possibility could be to apply a limit switch to the NEUTRAL position which is connected to the process control system to avoid a malfunction after the operation! This will be the perfect solution if a manual override is necessary for proper functioning of the process with all the usual and required possibilities we see regarding function, reliability, corrosion protection and explosive safety.

Meet Gnter xler

Gnter xler is a Consultant to the Process Industry and has a long history within the valve industry. He graduated in Process Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in Stuttgart, Germany, holds a MBA degree in VWA as well as a controlling degree and is a REFA specialist. For more than 25 years, Gnter has worked for several companies in the valve business. He is also a member of the IWA, ISA and VDI German Engineer. Gnter can be contacted under guenteroexler@aol.com

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March 2010

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