Problem: The desert area surrounding the Las Vegas Water & Pollution Control facility barely sees 4” of rainfall per year, so the use of reclaimed water for irrigation and other non-potable uses is on the increase. As part of the reclaimed water treatment process, the tertiary filtration facility has 30 gravity filters that assist in removing the fine particle and phosphorous before the final disinfection treatment.
The valves on these filters were operated with AWWA cylinder actuators that did not provide reliable open/close or modulating service and were difficult to troubleshoot.
Solution: The consulting engineer recommended the use of K-Tork vane actuators due to their simplicity (one-moving part) and long-lasting seal design.
The resulting $1.9m contract includes 205 K-Tork vane actuators which where selected for retrofitting on the AWWA butterfly valves. The valves range in size from 12 to 60”, and are fitted in the filter gallery and intake piping. The retrofit process was complicated and required a detailed field survey to measure the valve mounting dimensions, check for clearances and to provide easy operator access to the manual override and calibration points. Prior to fabrication, 3D CAD?drawings were provided for the engineer and end-user, for review and approval.
All 205 actuators were installed without any linkage kit modifications or any obstruction issues, and the commissioning was completed on time.