Rotork provides critical fire safety duties on Turkish subway

Rotork has installed over 150 RC200 pneumatic actuators to perform critical safety functions on a railway line in Turkey. Actuators operating fire dampers on an extension of the Kadıköy Kartal Tavşantepe metro line to the Sabiha Gökçen airport in Tukey has ensured the safety of passengers. The Sabiha Gökçen airport is 20 miles south of Istanbul. In 2019, it saw passenger numbers of over 35 million, highlighting the need for reliable and safe local travel infrastructure for passengers.

Fire dampers are safety products that are installed within rail tunnels to prevent the spread of fire and smoke. They are an essential safety function that can be operated by actuators, shutting in case of fire to prevent fire/smoke from travelling through the rail tunnels. 152 RC200 (high temperature versions) were installed on damper valves in the tunnels. They are compact pneumatic actuators with scotch-yoke mechanisms, providing ESD/shutdown capabilities. The customer chose spring-return configurations, offering fast operating capability and long-term reliability with minimum maintenance.

Actuators from the RC range can ordinarily operate in high temperature environments; they usually operate between 0 °C to +150 °C (+32 °F to +300 °F). In this case, the customer chose high temperature versions that can withstand even higher temperatures of 250°C for two hours and at 400 °C for an additional hour. The pneumatic actuators can work in these high temperatures without the expense of further external fireproofing coatings. They are certified to ATEX 2014/34/EU.