Smith Flow Control (SFC) has supplied numerous EasiDrive portable valve actuator units for the Gorgon Project off the North-west coast of Western Australia. The Gorgon Project is developing the Gorgon and Jansz-Io gas fields, including the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island and a domestic gas plant with the capacity to supply 300 terajoules of gas per day to Western Australia.
Gorgon valves have hundreds of turns, some even up to 1000, and temperatures in these environments can exceed 45°C. Manually operating valves in such conditions can result in occupational health and safety concerns for workers but SFC’s EasiDrive system protects personnel by preventing injury and operator fatigue as movement is fully controlled by the EasiDrive tool. Regardless of operator strength, EasiDrive is effective on valves requiring a high number of turns or are otherwise difficult to operate because of high torque or challenging operating conditions due to diverse weather environments.
SFC’s Australian-based distributor, Teksal Controls, supplied the EasiDrive Systems to ease operation and improve efficiencies on the Gorgon Project. “We supplied the Gorgon Project with the EasiDrive system to efficiently operate valves with a high number of turns. By using the drive system, the time taken to operate each valve was reduced dramatically, and it negated the need to double-up on the number of staff to operate the valves.”
