Petrobras' Capuava (Recap) and Paulínia (Replan) refineries, both located in the state of São Paulo, will install Rotork Skilmatic actuators at their plants. Recap acquired 9 actuators from Fluxo, while Replan acquired 14 units of the equipment.
Rotork's Skilmatic actuators are of the electro-hydraulic type, ideal for critical applications, which demand total safety in the passage of fluids through their valves. The Skilmatic actuators' fail-safe system works through the spring return mechanism, which guarantees the correct positioning of the valve, even with a sudden power failure. The solution can be considered highly reliable, as it keeps the hydraulic fluid in a closed circuit, which prevents contamination of the solenoids and any eventual binding. Its electronic control also allows monitoring the availability of the valve through the “partial stroke” test mechanism. The Skilmatic actuator is designed for applications with safety integrity level 3 (SIL3) and has an estimated mean time between failures (MTBF) for safe failure actuation for more than 100 years.