Rotork Skilmatic EH electro-hydraulic valve actuators have provided a successful solution for the provision of reliable emergency valve operation on a slurry pipeline in the Atacama Desert in NE Chile, which is traversed by an 80km pipeline owned by the mining company Compañia Minera del Pacifico SA. The pipeline carries iron slurry from the town of Copiapo to the port of Caldera, from where it is exported. The Rotork actuators have been installed at the UVS-1 emergency plant centre, half-way along the pipeline and in the middle of the Atacama Desert. Three Skilmatic EH electro-hydraulic actuators have been installed to operate ANSI Class 1500 ten-inch ball valves. The actuators provide double-acting on-off control for the valves, under remote SCADA system supervision. The design comprises an integrated control module, a hydraulic manifold and a power unit consisting of a motor, hydraulic pump and reservoir. Protected by a waterproof, dustproof and explosionproof enclosure, the actuators’ electronic functionality benefits from Rotork’s IQ intelligent electric actuation technology, providing configuration, diagnostics, fault indication and position indication by means of a digital visual display and non-intrusive, two-way communication with a hand-held programmer. The procurement and construction contractor for the project is Constructora Belfi and the engineering contractor is Brass.
