AUMA has delivered 196 of its PROFOX electric actuators to a district cooling plant in Dubai.

Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (EMPOWER), the leading district cooling provider in the United Arab Emirates, used the PROFOX units to replace under-performing pneumatic actuators at its plant in Palm Jumeirah, a group of artificial islands in Dubai. Frequent failures of the pneumatic actuators interrupted the supply of chilled water to customers.

As the plant uses small-diameter pipes and valves to convey chilled water, the operator was looking for new actuators that are not only reliable, but also compact and lightweight. AUMA’s PROFOX actuators proved to be the ideal solution thanks to their precise and high-quality mechanics, compact design, and low weight. They are also easy to install, requiring just an AC power supply, plus operating costs are low, thanks to high mechanical efficiency and low standby consumption.

The smart PROFOX actuators bring other benefits too. Integrated Bluetooth communications enables decentralised commissioning and operation using the AUMA Assistant App, conveniently via a smartphone or a tablet. All configuration parameters can be easily read out and changed via the App. The intelligent actuators also gather a wide variety of diagnostic and operating data, which can be easily viewed and used for predictive maintenance. Analysis of this data helps the operator to detect excessive loads and anticipate possible maintenance needs, thus helping to ensure reliable and continuous delivery of chilled water.

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200 AUMA electric valve actuators are now operating in Phase 2 of the Jebel Ali sewage treatment plant (STP) in Dubai. This increases the number of AUMA actuators on site to more than 400, including the 200 actuators at Jebel Ali STP phase 1 site that have been in operation since 2008. An additional 50 AUMA gearboxes have been installed for manual valve operation.

For Dubai Municipality, Jebel Ali STP Phase 2 is an important infrastructure project, helping to accommodate continued population growth as well as new developments including Expo 2020 Dubai. Phase 2 adds 375,000 m3/day of treatment capacity to the 350,000 m3/day already provided by Phase 1, while improving existing processes and treatment quality. The treated water is used for non-potable applications such as irrigation, helping Dubai Municipality reduce the need for desalinated seawater.

The AUMA actuators are installed across the entire new plant, located on a 670 hectare desert site. They automate a wide variety of gate valves, butterfly valves and penstocks at all stages of the treatment process. AUMA’s scope of supply includes 200 SA multi-turn actuators with AC actuator controls, some also combined with AUMA gearboxes. The most powerful gearboxes in the plant include six GS 400 part-turn gearboxes that control flow in a DN1800 pipeline, delivering a maximum torque of 125,000 Nm. All actuators are centrally controlled using the Profibus DP communication standard.

Some of the new actuators have been installed to automate valves in the phase 1 plant that were previously manually operated. Here, AUMA’s previous experience with similar retrofits proved to be particularly beneficial. AUMA’s local Dubai team provided comprehensive support to consultancy AECOM and contractor BESIX / Larsen & Toubro, from site survey, technical consulting and machining of tailor-made couplings to support for commissioning and training.

Our colleagues in Germany put this video together as a nice insight into the working day at AUMA Muellheim. The new building looks great! Click on the image on the right to see the video,

AUMA has supplied electric actuators with integral Profinet communications for a modernisation project at a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operated by Novafos, a major water company serving nine municipalities in eastern Denmark, close to Copenhagen. Novafos operates 17 drinking water plants and 18 sewage treatment plants, and treats around 20 million m³ of water annually. An estimated total of more than 400 AUMA actuators provide reliable valve automation across the Novafos plants.

To operate valves and penstocks on the plant AUMA supplied five SA .2 actuators with intelligent AC controls and Profinet interface, connected to local Profinet controllers in a star topology. Profinet is an Industrial Ethernet standard that combines the robustness of traditional fieldbus networks with the speed and flexibility of Ethernet. It offers full duplex transmission at 100 Mbit/s, comprehensive network diagnostics, automatic configuration, and alarm functions.

“We decided to invest in Profinet communications because Profinet is an open Industrial Ethernet standard with standardised structures,” Plant Manager Søren Præstiin says. “We also appreciate that Profinet is easily configured to provide secure remote access and web services, for both the plant as a whole and individual field devices. We only considered devices with integral Profinet interfaces. AUMA compares favourably with other manufacturers,” Mr. Præstiin explains.

AUMA’s electric actuators with integral Profinet interface meet the requirements of Profinet specification 2.3. An integrated web server allows connection tests, status requests and fault diagnostics to be run quickly and easily. All operating commands and feedback signals are available via Profinet to AUMA AC actuator controls thanks to the standardised device description (GSDML). A Field Device Integration (FDI) package is also available.

Image caption: Jens Ulrik Jensen (left), AUMA sales, and Søren Præstiin (right), plant manager at Malov WWTW