Hundreds of Rotork actuators to be used on southern Indian pipeline

More than 300 Rotork actuators have been specified for use on an Indian pipeline almost 700 km in length.

The pipeline, which is currently under construction, will stretch across southern India and transport supplies from a key refinery. Due to the large scale of the project, a large number of actuators are required and Rotork’s CMA, IQ and SI ranges have all been specified.

The customer selected the CML-1500 and CML-3000 actuators primarily for fail-safe motor operated valve (MOV) and modulating globe valve operation. They will be installed at remote locations along the 695 km pipeline, where manual operation would not be practical. Additionally, they are a low power consumption solution (less than 1 Watt at standby) which makes them ideal for remote applications.

Electro-hydraulic SI actuators will also be installed to provide safety critical fail-safe duties on the pipeline. These were selected due to requirement of SIL3 certification and their high torque output, meaning that they are able to provide fail-safe solutions on the larger valves on the pipeline. With a linear torque output of up to 4,580 kN (1,029,625 lbf) and a part-turn torque output of up to 500,000 Nm (368,781 lbf.ft), these actuators are designed to meet today’s control and safety needs.

Rotork’s IQ range of intelligent electric actuators will be installed on ball valves and plug valves along the length of the pipeline. These will be providing vital isolation duties, ensuring that the supplies of oil and gas can be cut off in the event of an emergency, therefore helping to eliminate the risk of fire or explosion. These actuators are explosionproof and continue to provide position tracking even on loss of power, making them appropriate for pipeline applications.

The actuators will all be linked by Rotork’s leading Pakscan™ network bus system and connected via Rotork Master Stations installed at substations along the pipeline. Up to 240 field devices on a 20 km 2-wire loop can be controlled by a single Master Station, making them ideal for applications where remote control of actuators will be essential. The Rotork Master Station is available in single or dual configuration, while a hot standby option provides a replica unit to assume network control and ensure reliability.