In an industry overflowing with data, sensors and innovation rhetoric, some of the most valuable opportunities sit at the point where measurement becomes control — the actuator.
In a new regular column for 2026, Martin Hardwidge will be exploring this area of modern technology, which has the power to transform safety, efficiency and asset performance. But to unlock these benefits, the sector needs earlier, deeper engagement between designers, contractors and framework suppliers.
There’s a slide I often put up at the beginning of a presentation that just says (in big red letters), “AN ACTUATOR IS NOT JUST A BLOODY MOTOR!”. Point being, if you think about an actuator as just the lumpy bit that opens and closes a valve, then there are a lot of opportunities going begging – opportunities to streamline projects, work more efficiently, in many cases work more safely, to support asset management strategies, to extend the life of the valves and penstocks, reduce leakage and to add data at a critical point in the control of the process. The industry is full of sensors and data, measurement and management, but the valves and penstocks, and the actuators that control them, are the place where the rubber hits the road, where measurement becomes control.
So, our challenge is to do our best to make sure that we are communicating our ideas to the right people, and it is a challenge. The water companies, the Tier 1 and Tier 2 consultants and contractors, the MEICA engineers all employ a vast army of engineers and designers, often numbering in the hundreds within individual companies, and that’s not counting all the people who have the word ‘Innovation’ in their job title. Which brings me to another point – what, in fact, is an innovation? Is it a completely new way of doing things, a new way of removing or processing ‘stuff’, or can it also be more of an incremental advantage? One thing is very certain – once the designers have done their work and the valve package tenders have been sent out, there’s often no room for further development, no opportunity for new ideas to be applied.
Let me give you an example. What’s the first thing you learn, when you take your CCNSG site safety course and they talk about working in confined spaces? Avoid it. The next day, when you learn about working at height? Avoid it.
At AUMA, one of our big themes is ‘modularity’. Our range of multi-turn and part turn actuators is built from motors, gearcases, controls and connections. These can be combined in a huge variety of configurations that support work on site, standardisation, and project operations, which allows us to build bespoke equipment in a matter of days to meet urgent requirements. I’ll return to this theme in future articles.
The part that’s relevant to the paragraph above is that the ‘actuator’ – the gearcase and motor housing – can be mounted separately from the ‘controls’, where the operation of the valve, communications and feedback happens. Connection between the two is via a robust umbilical cable that maintains IP and ATEX ratings. What that means is that, rather than having an actuator in a hole, you can mount it directly onto a valve that is positioned in a chamber or on top of a high gantry, or in a roof, and run a cable to where the controls are mounted (we even supply a handy wall mount to help) in a spot that’s much easier to access, so nobody needs to climb or enter the chamber to make a small adjustment. In a lot of situations this can be a significant contribution to site safety.
Not only that, but there are other good reasons to take this approach in a more mechanical/technical sense, avoiding the need for long ‘torque bars’ with universal joints that are difficult to maintain and can lead to valve leakage. It should also be said, for the designers reading this, that you can save useful amounts of money because you don’t need to have things like raised walkways installed!
The point is, that it isn’t up to the valve manufacturer, presented with a specification and asked to quote their best price, to go back round the loop and push back at the designer to integrate these ‘innovations’ once they are in a competitive situation. Things are getting much better, but project programmes can be very opaque unless you’re a Tier One, and if the vital themes of Collaboration, Early Contractor Engagement and Innovation are going to be more than buzzwords, then designers, consultants and contractors have got to engage with all the Framework suppliers – who, after all, have already proven their worth through very detailed bidding processes – throughout the whole of the supplier ecosystem. Only then can projects really benefit from the wealth of ideas, best practice and, yes, innovations large and small that are already out there to help deliver on the challenges of AMP8 and beyond.
