Electrically actuated control valve market to exceed $630m by 2017, IMS says

The market for control valves using electric actuators will double by 2017, according to IMS Research. The research group expects the market for electrically actuated control valves to experience CAGR growth of 13.4% through to 2017 - more than twice the rate of any other control valve type.

As a result of this growth, IMS Research predicts the market will exceed $630 million by 2017, representing more than 10% of global control valve assembly revenues.

In 2011, air power was required for about 93% of valves sold, demonstrating pneumatic actuation’s dominance of the control valve market. This is interesting given the generally accepted view that electric actuators are more efficient and offer greater levels of control.

However, IMS says, fail-safe limitations, increased integration complexity, fragility perceptions and a higher price tag have deterred many end users considering electric actuation over traditional pneumatic actuation. As a result, the global market for control valve assemblies using electric actuation was estimated to represent about 6% of global control valve revenues in 2011.

The customer base for these products has increased dramatically of late, due to developments in electric actuation. Rugged electric actuators with armoured cables and water resistance capability have expanded the instances where it is feasible to use electric actuation to include increasingly hostile environments.

The ability to now fail-open, fail-close, or anywhere in between, has also expanded the market base to include a variety of fail-safe applications, which have further increased the ability of electric actuation to compete with air power in control valve markets.

“The increased ability to address hostile environment and fail-safe applications has significantly increased the customer base for control valves using electric actuators,” said Rob Carter, IMS Research Senior Analyst and author of the report. “However, there still remain barriers that will prevent electric actuators from fully realising this new potential.”

“Firstly, the higher price tag and technical complexity of these components compared with more basic pneumatic alternatives. Secondly, most control valve suppliers manufacture pneumatic actuators in-house, but have to source electric actuators from third parties, which can make it difficult to be price competitive and still maintain required profitability.

“Despite these barriers, electric actuators are expected to show strong growth in the control valve market over the next five years, especially in low-speed applications,” Carter concluded. “By 2017, electrically actuated valves are forecast to exceed 10% of the global market for process control valve assemblies.”