Steam turbines require regular maintenance and repair because of three major reasons; the requirement for advanced efficiency, reliability concerns, or an emergency issue that needs replacement or repairing of some parts. There are various steam turbine repairs and maintenance services that have developed a huge portfolio of services and products to offer customers some solutions that are compatible with their key drivers. They offer complete overhaul, repair, and maintenance of the turbines with the help of experienced engineers and workers. Usually, a steam turbine needs monitoring and repairing every 5 years.
The technique of maintenance management of a steam turbine
To achieve the high reliability of steam turbines timely maintenance and repair operations are crucial. Along with documentation and the latest managing procedures, some specific forms of maintenance management are needed for both the turbines and the supporting systems associated with them. The maintenance can be done by utilizing machinery record cards and as well as CMM or computer-based maintenance management.
The most important part of proper maintenance is a proper system to track and schedule the completion of maintenance operations. Moreover, feedback from the client is also important to adjust the proper periodicity and scope of the operations. Besides, there must be definite procedures for controlling the contractors’ work. Also, there’s a huge necessity to establish preplanning for the unscheduled outages especially when the mobilization of different parts and resources requires to be done during a crisis period. However, if maintained properly, steam turbines can be very long-lasting devices, with functional life often crossing 50 years.
The maintenance and repairing practices of the steam turbine must include the following procedures:
- Complete research of the latest available technical bulletins and service manuals.
- Proper tag-out and/or look-out procedures
- Contractor control procedures
- Maintenance management and emergency preplanning procedures
There is a wide range of sophisticated software and industry approaches for establishing advanced maintenance programs. These approaches are –
- RCM or reliability centered maintenance
- PM or preventive maintenance
Some other variations utilize the value of the steam turbine and the reasons for its failure for establishing which factors must be prioritized for proper maintenance. The maintenance operation also includes safeguarding the turbine from water induction, corrosive steam, loss of lube oil, over speed, sticking valves, and corrosive steam that could cause huge damage to the tribune.
Types of services offered for the maintenance and repairing of steam turbine
The steam turbine maintenance services cover overhauls, and repairs including the supply of various spare parts and programming and/or manufacture of control systems via expert engineering. They also provide services between important overhauls like vibration measurements, endoscopic inspections, troubleshooting, etc. All these are based on the control system’s operating data.
Following are steps of maintenance and repair services offered by the efficient companies:
Diagnostics and Inspection
This is the primary yet most important step when maintenance of the steam turbine comes into the picture. Via this step, one can get detailed data of the required preventive maintenance and the perfect timing to undergo these repair works.
The inspection and diagnostics of the steam turbines include:
- Oil analysis
- Endoscopic inspection
- Analysis of the root cause
- Vibration measurement
- Troubleshooting depending on the operating information from the control system
- Checking the alignments
To effectively regenerate the performance and health of steam turbines, the following parameters are also inspected:
- Inlet temperature and pressure
- Temperature and pressure of the first stage
- Load and speed of the turbine
- Temperature and pressure of IP turbine inlet, LP turbine inlet, and HP turbine inlet
- Extraction of temperatures and pressures
- Purity of the water and steam
- Temperature and pressure of the hydraulic fluid and lube oil
Overhaul and maintenance
To get the steam turbine appropriately functioning in the minimum possible period, the following steps are followed:
- Inspection of bearing
- Hot and cold commissioning
- LTSA
- Balancing
- Preventive maintenance
- Breakdown services
Repairing
To repair each part of the bearing at the top quality standards and in the shortest possible time, the latest manufacturing techniques and reverse engineering methods are used. This include:
- Delivery of spare parts
- Modification of the controlling components of the steam turbine
- Production of blades
- Retrofits
The top-level of productivity is delivered by providing maximum attention to the quality standards and HSE. The independent experienced service providers, who have a thorough experience of steam turbine manufacturing, offer MRO services along with commissioning aid for a seamless overhaul procedure. They have extensive in-house engineering and workshop facilities for manufacturing spare which is essential for the appropriate maintenance and functioning of the steam turbines.
Although, there’s an uplifted level of sophistication in the repairing and maintenance of the steam turbine, the experience and operational skill of the maintenance stuff are also very important to ensure the proper re-functioning of the turbine.
