In mines and mills, installation space is often at a premium for pneumatic actuators used in valve automation
Although space has been a long-standing hurdle in the actuator industry, innovation around this restriction didn’t take place until recently. In fact, up until the late 2000s, no fundamental improvements or disruptions to pneumatic actuator designs occurred. The old generation of valve actuators typically relied on internal springs. In this design, when the actuator moves the flow control element away from its starting position (open or closed), it compresses the internal spring and then uses the energy stored in the spring to move the control element back toward its starting position.
