SHANA - The Iranian Oil Terminals Company successfully developed the savvy to manufacture electric actuators for industrial valves in oil and petrochemical operations.

The caretaker of IOTC said this broke the monopoly of British, French and American companies for production of the item.

Abbas Asadrouz said the design and manufacturing of the actuators were carried out by experts in an Iranian knowledge-based company that prevented massive expenses for importing the item.

A valve actuator is the mechanism for opening and closing a valve. Manually operated valves require someone in attendance to adjust them using a direct or geared mechanism attached to the valve stem.

Power-operated actuators, using gas pressure, hydraulic pressure or electricity, allow a valve to be adjusted remotely, or allow rapid operation of large valves. Power-operated valve actuators may be the final elements of an automatic control loop which automatically regulates some flow, level or other process.

The actuators were installed in Khark Oil Terminal for a year and underwent all kinds of relevant tests to be prepared for mass production.