SIPOS Aktorik, the manufacturer and global supplier of electric actuators, applied its skills in solar solutions to address water flow requirements for a fountain system at a Parisian Palace. The Palace of St. Cloud, which is managed by the Chateau of Versailles, displays its fountains at pre-determined times via a water system based entirely on gravity driven flow. The design challenge faced was providing simple control for the fountain system’s water valve without a local power supply.
SIPOS, which provides valve automation technology for traditional process control installations in the water industry, is adept at providing innovative solutions for out-of-the-ordinary applications. The company resolved the fountain control conundrum with a turnkey SIPOS 5 Solar solution incorporating a simple clock timer.
All components including solar cell, charge controller, batteries, actuator and control cabinet were supplied by SIPOS to provide automated power control without external power supply. Therefore, the single phase system with integrated inverter could be mounted some 200 m away from the actuator to be powered – this minimised aesthetic impact at the historic site.
With integral frequency converter technology, SIPOS 5 actuators are ideally suited to solar applications as they feature low starting and running currents whilst maintaining output torque across a broad voltage range.
