Bernard Controls

Bernard Controls manufactures electric actuators for industrial valves and dampers. The group traces to an electric motor workshop opened by Lucien Bernard near Paris in 1936, was established as a company in 1949, and moved into electric actuators soon after. Its America manufacturing unit operates from Katy, Texas, with group headquarters in Gonesse, France and a second manufacturing plant in Beijing.

Three markets are named: nuclear, power-water-industry, and oil and gas. A dedicated oil and gas range was launched in 2011. The company states that it ranks in the world top three for electric actuators, holds the strongest position in the nuclear sector, and created the first quarter-turn actuator designed for butterfly valves in the 1970s.

Product labels

Ranges sit under two labels. FIRST BC covers what the company calls the essentials, the functions needed to operate a valve or damper under moderate environmental and operational constraints. BC PREMIUM covers severe environments and critical applications, with more options and configurations.

Actuator ranges

Direct-mount torque is capped lower than the full range, at 1,000 Nm on AQ, 800 Nm on SQ and 500 Nm on AT and BT, with higher figures reached through gearboxes or supplied on request. Multi-turn output speeds run 10 to 180 rpm on AT and 10 to 127 rpm on BT.

Other families in the catalogue include:

• AQX, SQX and STX explosionproof quarter-turn and multi-turn actuators
• FSE and FQ fail-safe ranges
• Continuous modulating actuators in the OAP, MA/MB, MAS/MBS and SQXM/STXM series
• Nuclear qualified actuators
• Gearboxes and accessories

Controls and communication

Actuators are supplied either with electromechanical SWITCH controls or with integrated electronic control, LOGIC (v2) on the AQ and AT ranges and INTELLI+ on the BT, SQ, ST, SQX and STX ranges. Electronic versions offer non-intrusive setting, configurable relays and an LCD display that can be reoriented in four directions. LOGIC (v2) actuators carry Bluetooth as standard for the BC App, used for setting, operating, troubleshooting and documentation access.

Fieldbus is offered across the ranges, covering:

• Modbus RTU
• Profibus DPV1, single or redundant
• HART
• Foundation Fieldbus

Construction and duty ratings

Enclosures are full aluminum protected by powder coating, rated IP68 with corrosion protection from C3 up to C5-M depending on range. Standard operating temperature runs -20 to +70°C, with a low-temperature option to -40°C and a high-temperature option to +90°C on SWITCH versions.

Mechanical features across the ranges include:

• Self-locking gear trains that hold valve position when the actuator is de-energized
• Electronic torque limiters
• Declutch-free manual override
• Adjustable mechanical travel stops
• Mechanical position indicators on SWITCH versions

Duty is classified Class A or A+ for on-off, Class B or B+ for inching and positioning, and Class III or III+ for modulating, referenced to EN15714-2. Models carry S4 motor service duty, and SQ actuators are offered in a SIL2 configuration. The company states that every delivered product is automatically tested before shipment and that AQL endurance testing passed 200,000 cycles.

Locations

Manufacturing and operating units are listed at:

• Katy, Texas (America manufacturing unit)
• Beijing, China (Asia manufacturing unit)
• Gonesse, France (group headquarters)
• Troisdorf, Germany
• Nivelles, Belgium
• Seoul, South Korea
• Torquay, Victoria, Australia