Turbine Efficiency slashes engine refurbishment times and costs 05 June 2014

A £1 million expansion at the Lincoln works of Turbine Efficiency has seen the installation of two stands for testing powergen gas turbines after they have been stripped down, repaired and rebuilt.

Vibratory cleaning and surface preparation of the components before they are reassembled have also been brought in house, saving £4,000 per engine on subcontract services, and cutting turnaround times for refurbishing a gas turbine by one month.

Paul Holder, repair engineer at Turbine Efficiency, says that a key facility for cleaning smaller parts (up to 15cm long) is a vibratory bowl from PDJ Vibro. The device has an acoustic cover, automatic unload screen, ceramic media, metal finishing compound and water recirculation system.

"After evaluating a number of bowl suppliers, we opted for PDJ Vibro mainly due to their helpfulness," comments Holder. "We sent sample blades to their technical centre in Milton Keynes and were happy with the results."

Holder explains that, because there is no water supply near where the bowl site, PDJ Vibro recommended a recirculation tank for the aqueous finishing solution.

"PDJ Vibro is also advising us on the best ceramic media to use and has recently provided us with smaller sized stones that are ideally shaped to access the internal features of fir tree root forms on turbine blades," he adds.

Holder says that having control over all rebuild functions in house has also resulted in improved quality, which has "virtually eliminated" non-conformance.

Brian Tinham

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