RAL600: a “perfect fit” for hard to reach underground water assets

Industry : Mains Water

Client : Water Infrastructure

Product : RAL600

Summary

RIFTS Partner has been contracted to upgraded infrastructure for a number of water companies,
particularly looking at mains water supply in hard to reach under ground locations. The upgrades are to assist in flow balancing and leak isolation on parts of the mains water supply. RIFT has a long relationship with the partner supplying custom proportional control pressure regulation solutions and other actuation process control solutions.

Overview

RIFTS Partner are an experienced provider of a range of valve and actuator solutions for water companies including pressure regulation services on mains supplies, monitoring systems providing live data on flows with real time cloud data.

Irish Water has many assets on its existing infrastucture and an ongoing process of maintenance and repair. Particular attention is being paid to rapid response when leaks are detected or reported. Currently engineers are required to visit locations and manually operate valves resulting in time delays and high operating costs.

Power is often a very limited resource with even mains voltage increasing the danger of working in the environment.

Challenge

In 2023 our partner asked to look at parts of the infrastucture which were difficult to access, in one particular location 5 meters down a manhole 5 large Gate Valves are installed too close to the chamber walls for traditional actuators to be installed. Requiring over 400Nm to safely operate, multi-turn and slow speed of operation. Only 24VDC is the only power source available in the chamber currently powering monitoring equipment.

Solution

With the inaccessibility of the location, the limited power supply, and the small required footprint, RIFT Actuators RAL range was selected to integrate with the clients monitoring equpment and allow all the valves to be fully automated in real time.

The RAL600 providing an IP68, Failsafe, Modulating (Proportional Control) solution with the innovative Wiggle Function (periodic moves to confirm valve operation), De-clutch manual handwheel, and feedback to the control and flow monitoring equipment provides an integrated
cloud connected solution with real time data and rapid response to leak or flow control issues. The RAL600’s each drawing a maximum of 10W with a long life and rugged construction are ideally suited for this kind of harsh environment. The total power draw from 5 RAL600’s at 24VDC is 0.45A (under 50W). Future locations are being looked at. The high torque and small 9” circular footprint of the RAL600 provides a unique energy efficient solution to this challenging environment.