“To a valve engineer, saying ‘I’ve been to Marshalltown is like saying I’ve been to heaven,’ ” proclaimed Emerson Electric Corp. Chief Operating Officer Ed Monser while delivering the keynote address at the public unveiling of the new Emerson Innovation Center, Fisher Technology in Marshalltown, Iowa. Isn’t enthusiasm great in this age of cynicism, and Emerson has much to be proud of in this facility. They gave us a tour of most of the labs–and engineers can test and research flow and valves and implementations on a wide variety of technologies and products.
Emerson also announced several new products at the event. First was the marrying of its easy-Drive electric actuator to its D2, D3 and D4 valves for natural gas applications. Often used in remote areas with limited power resources, the valves are usually powered pneumatically from the natural gas itself. These low-power electric actuators will prevent that natural gas from being released to the atmosphere and diverted into the pipe for sale instead.
The Fisher VBL volume booster is used in conjunction with a positioner on a throttling control valve to increase stroking speed. The booster incorporates fixed deadband, soft seat construction and an integral bypass restriction to eliminate positioner saturation problems that can occur with volume boosters that do not have these features.
The Control-Disk valve series has been extended with new line sizes. The Vee-Ball family of valves has been extended with the addition of the V150E, which is designed for installation directly to a medium consistency pump discharge flange. It features an expanded outlet to accomodate larger diameter transfer lines.
