AVK UK Limited was awarded a contract for the provision of four DN800 Series 55 Resilient Seated Gate Valves along with nine DN900 Metal Seated Gate Valves by the Caledonia Water Alliance (Morrison Utility Services Limited and AECOM) on the Dalmacoulter Resilience Scheme for ultimate client Scottish Water.
The valves are the first of their kind ever to have been supplied on a UK scheme having only been available and supplied up to DN600 before this order. Discussions began early 2016, and the valves were delivered to site in October 2016.The Caledonia Water Alliance, formed by Morrison Utility Services Limited and AECOM, was named in 2014 as the preferred bidder to support the delivery of Scottish Water’s water infrastructure element of its capital investment programme.
The contract includes programme management, together with the design and construction of works associated with the water network across the whole of Scotland. This contract includes new assets, renewals, modifications, maintenance and refurbishment of water networks and pumping stations. The Dalmacoulter Resilience Scheme is for the construction of a 1000mm diameter HPPE pipeline approximately 5km in length running from Cumbernauld to Airdrie.
The pipeline is being constructed in duplication to the existing pre-stressed concrete pumping main to ensure the resilience of supply to 185,000 people.
Wilson McPhail, AVK UK Limited Business Manager for Scotland explained why the DN800 S55 Resilient Seated Gate Valves were chosen for the scheme, “We had worked closely and collaborated with the Caledonia Water Team on the design requirements.
It was established that on two of the DN800 Gate Valves, there would not be enough headroom for the valves to sit in the vertical position. One of the key advantages of the AVK S55 Resilient Seated Gate Valve is that you can install them vertically or horizontally as standard without any modifications required to the valve. This allowed us to easily overcome this challenge by giving the customer the flexibility to install in either position.”
The valves were manufactured at AVK’s state of the art machining facility in Anhui, China.
“The usage of the DN800 S55 not only solved the immediate challenge but also provided the customer with other additional benefits. The AVK S55 Gate valves have a lower operating torque in comparison to a Metal Seated Gate Valve which is significant for the gearing or actuator size resulting in cost savings to the customer, the valves are designed to be 100% drop tight. They are the optimum valves for this scheme.” Wilson continued.
AVK UK Limited is continuously developing new products to meet the ever-increasing demand within the sector. Work is already underway for the development of DN900mm and DN1000mm diameter S55 Resilient Seated Gate Valves that should be available this year.
Wilson concluded, “Our development and manufacturing teams constantly liaise with market leaders to identify new ways of doing things and new products.”
