Reasons to use Portable Actuators

Often the simplest ideas are the best, and it doesn’t get simpler than a portable actuator. It’s easy to use, easy to carry and will make it easy to manage your valve network. All of which translates into three principal advantages.

Protecting your personnel

Operators working in industries that have major pipe networks are required to open and close large numbers of manual valves during the course of their labour. Even modern networks, which have a greater number of mechanically operated valves, have a back-up manual mechanism for the valves that needs regularly maintenance.

The action of actuating manual valves is by nature highly repetitive and, if the valve is stiff or too tightly closed, workers may need to exert significant pressure to open it, risking strain injuries or, in the worst case scenario, an accident.

If they use a portable actuator, however, the only effort involved is placing the actuator on to the valve and watching the tool do the work. No repetition, no forcing, and no risk of accident.

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Protecting your equipment

When a valve is difficult to open - if it is rarely used, for example - the temptation is to open it as infrequently as possible. The result? It becomes even harder to budge the next time. Eventually it will become definitively jammed or broken by workers forcing it open. A jammed valve may also, in certain circumstances, cause wider damage to your equipment.

Regular maintenance is vital to ensure valves can be opened as and when required, especially in the case of safety valves. With a portable actuator, this maintenance work can be carried out quickly and efficiently, which will encourage operators to implement a regular maintenance routine.

Equally important, when a valve is stiff or partly blocked, the portable actuator will exert a regular, even pressure so there is no risk of breaking the valve.

Efficiencies

A portable actuator is the best of plug and play – simply place it on the valve and off you go. Modec’s unique modular range of portable actuators includes adaptors to fit different sizes, shapes and types of valves, so there is no need to prefix adaptor plates to each valve before use. Also, using a portable actuator means there is no need to invest in a system of fixed power actuators for each valve. In either case, this represents significant financial savings.

The portable actuator rotates valves on average 10 times faster than rotating by hand. Maintenance work and safety manoeuvres can therefore be carried out more efficiently, in turn optimising employee output as well as increasing the durability of the valves. So you save both time and money.