Valve Upgrades Reduce The Number Of Corrective Work Orders By 99%

Aqua Pennsylvania has been supplying potable water to residents since 1892. Its largest facility, the Pickering water treatment plant, was using conventional electric actuators on valves across the facility, including the modulating Filter Effluent applications. A history of actuator problems prompted plant personnel to consider replacements.

Pickering’s Filter Effluent valves consisted of AWWA butterfly valves operated by conventional electric actuators. The actuators used a multi-turn, squirrel cage motor to operate an external gear-head to operate the quarter turn valves. These are commonly used because they are economical, and widely supplied as part of systems. Unfortunately, there are inherent duty-cycle limitations and potential reliability issues in modulating service like Filter Effluent valves.