Intelligent actuators boost filtration reliability

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Sep 7, 2004

IQT intelligent electric valve actuators have been installed at the Colorado Springs Utilities' Ute Pass water treatment plant located in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado.

Rotork IQT intelligent electric valve actuators have been installed at the Colorado Springs Utilities' Ute Pass water treatment plant located in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado, to secure improved reliability on the filtration equipment.

Colorado Springs Utilities is a four-service community-owned organisation providing natural gas, electricity, water and wastewater services to the Pikes Peak region in Colorado.

The Ute Pass WTP, one of the six water treatment plants operated by the utilities, is a 2 million gallons a day packaged plant, now consisting of four filters.

The plant was originally commissioned in 1987 and a capacity increase from 1 to 2 million gallons a day was completed in the summer of 2003.

From the initial operation of the enlarged plant utilities personnel were dissatisfied with the reliability of the incumbent valve actuators when compared with the performance of Rotork's IQ/IQT nonintrusive intelligent technology at several installations in other plants.

Through their outside engineering consultant they requested a quotation from Municipal Treatment Equipment (MTE), Rotork's municipal sales agent in Denver, for replacement IQT actuators.

MTE handled sizing and Rotork arranged a special delivery, resulting in orders for four IQT250 and 20 IQT125 units to fit butterfly valves in sizes ranging from 3 to 8in.

IQT technology and software tools enabled utilities personnel to install and commission all the actuators with impressive speed and efficiency, with only minimal assistance and training from Rotork and MTE.

Extensive use of IQ Insight software enabled actuator configuration information to be saved and then downloaded to other IQTs installed on identical valves, resulting in valuable time savings as it was necessary to shut down two filters at a time during the changeover.