It’s hard to believe summer is over and kids are back in school.  With Fall just around the corner and Winter on its heels, we are taking time to enjoy our annual Moog Flo-Tork Summer picnic.  As a reward for all the hard work employees contribute throughout the year, this is a day to relax and enjoy socializing with their coworkers. 

It has definitely been a year of exciting opportunities and challenges. We implemented new systems such as ERP which gives us better connectivity across the full Moog organization eliminating communication gaps and inefficiencies.  As part of this new system, we are aligning our sales department for increased attention to industrial customers and distributors.  We have always tried to maintain a good relationship and strived to provide superior delivery and customer support.  This increased customer focus, will enhance the relationship between Moog Flo-Tork and the customer.  Some of this will be done through social media outlets such as FaceBook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Other areas will include more customer contact at all levels of the organization.  Having the organization focused on ALL the customer’s needs will facilitate our responsiveness and ability to assist customers with new concepts and solutions.

I want to thank all the employees of Moog Flo-Tork for their hard work every day and make this day a small token of thanks. 

There are many times where multiple distinct stopping points are required on a rotary actuator. Moog Flo-Tork has supplied many actuators with distinct intermediate stopping points which are fixed positions based on the application. The demand for these types of actuators for Moog Flo-Tork began with the machine tool industry. These early machines, which are what we know as the CNC machine would have a tool or table that would be required to move to distinct locations during the machining operation. These were first built about 30 years ago and furnished to many machine builders. Once these were successfully used in the machine tool industry, the multi-position actuator expanded the number of applications into the ergonomic and conveyor industry of the automotive and appliance industries. The usefulness of having multiple positions without proportional valves or expensive feedback devices is something which we realized was useful in many applications.

The multiple position actuators are controlled by directional control valves, and typically are switched from position to position through the use of simple switches. The majority of the time these actuators are manufactured with 3 distinct positions, like 0, 45, and 90 degrees. Lately we have been manufacturing and have been requested to manufacture rack and pinion actuators with a total of 360 degrees of rotation and up to five positions. These are typically used in multi-position assembly fixtures and are operated by multiple positions which rotate one direction by position and all the way to the starting position.

After just returning from the Offshore Technical Conference in Houston I realize how much all of our lives revolve around oil and gas.  Even though we are geographically removed from the oil and gas fields of the Gulf of Mexico we are very much impacted by them.  We have been dealing with companies which are active in the exploration, drilling, and production of these oil and gas fields for many years.  We see the impact of a change in politics which affects the industry.  We also have the technical capacity to help in the creation of innovative new ideas which will help in the prevention of future accidents.  During the recent conference, the Macondo oil spill was something which we referred to as we discussed new regulations which will now bring about new changes within the industry.  Some of the regulations being brought about will make the oil and gas industry safer, and some as with any response to an accident, will just make it more bureaucratic and costly.

Moog Flo-Tork is ready to assist in the technical challenges which many of the companies will face, from going to more hostile environments such as deeper water or colder temperatures to just looking at a process in a different manner which will be more redundant.  We have already started working with companies assisting them in what we see as a long term recertification process of oilfield equipment.

Moog Flo-Tork has thrived on making solutions for challenging problems for the past 50 years, and will continue to support this industry and others for another 50 years.

Throughout the years of the manufacture of rack and pinion rotary actuators there has always been an inherent backlash within a system.  This backlash is typical caused by manufacturing tolerances within the rotary actuator.  These tolerances are necessary for manufacturing the parts and to aid in the assembly.  Backlash is defined as the error in motion when the drives change direction.  In highly controlled applications such as high frequency testing this error can cause problems with data collection and real world simulation. 

The backlash can be eliminated in the system through design modifications of the rotary actuator.  By the reduction of manufacturing tolerance the backlash is minimized,  however this will greatly increase the cost at the same time.  Based on the backlash being part of the inherent design we have come up with a couple simple approaches in which we can eliminate the backlash from our standard rotary actuators.

Through the use of pressure techniques we can minimize or eliminate the backlash.  One of the methods we use to eliminate backlash is through the use of a double rack rotary actuator.  The use of two racks gives us the opportunity to have the rack teeth and pinion teeth in constant contact.  Torque is created by applying pressure to both racks in the same direction and then changing the differential pressure between the cylinders.  In this scenario backlash is eliminated because the teeth on the rack and pinion are never separated

For the past 10 years we at Moog Flo-Tork have offered a solution for actuation at natural gas compressor stations.

When adapting our oil over air control systems for natural gas transmission lines, we first wanted to address some practical questions.

Is there vibration caused within the structure or pipes because of the compressors?

1. Are there problems with oil bypassing the system and going onto the ground?
2. Is there the possibility for flooding?

After reviewing products already on the market, we found well-built products that only addressed some of the major needs for oil over air control systems. This prompted Moog Flo-Tork to build our own product that provides a solution to problems  which were not currently addressed. Our sealed oil over gas rotary actuator will work in high vibration conditions, on and offshore.

We did not realize the additonal benefit of this rotary actuator until after Hurricane Katrina.  Moog Flo-Tork was part of a compressor station which was flooded with 12 feet of water for more than 2 weeks after the Hurricane. When the water receded after 2 weeks, the sealed gas over oil systems kept the actuators from filling with water. The rotary actuators, sealed from the flood waters, were able to operate once the pipeline was clear.

We have found that designing not only around the problems of today, but with some forward thinking, benefits our customers immensely.