Sulzer Turbomachinery Services

Volume 1, Spring 2001

A New Service Entity Is Born

Ton Buechner
President of Sulzer Turbomachinery Services

Dear customer, co-worker, and business partner,

With enormous pleasure, the Netherlands, on November 1, Germany to France. We will

Sulzer Turbomachinery Services 2000. Elbar is world renowned for continue this thrust to give true
(STS) team welcomes the year its incredible technological lead in meaning to the words “customer
2001. We live and work in a industrial gas turbine component service.”
tremendously fast changing and repair and component remaining- This is the first issue of our
exciting industry and we are lifetime assessments. newly developed business
looking forward to demonstrating With the overall capabilities magazine, which we intend to bring
our service approach and flexibility and geographical presence in our to you on a regular basis. We will
to our existing and new customers. keep you informed about our key
Last year saw significant projects and technological
changes for many of us, both in the developments.
industry and in our own I would like to thank all of our
organizations. Sulzer created a co-workers for their dedication
new entity by combining the and commitment to the creation
independent rotating equipment of our new entity, while
service suppliers within its portfolio. continuing to serve valued
With this, in April 2000, Sulzer customers with our well-known
Turbomachinery Services was traditional approach. I welcome
born, consisting of Hickham the Elbar co-workers into the
Industries, Texas, USA, Sulzer team and appreciate them
Repco in The Netherlands, and PT joining our business. We are
Hickham in Indonesia. The group, we will become the leading optimistic about the year 2001, in
customer service attitude of the global independent total-service which we have all intentions to
STS team is famous throughout the team to our customers. Each keep the excitement going!
industry and the concept of company has wonderful strengths,
independent service is truly which they have proven throughout
appreciated by our customers. their many years (some up to 26
The Sulzer Corporation (year years) of existence. Most recently,
2000 turnover of approximately 3.7 STS has shown its increased
Billion US $) is committed to our strength in combining capabilities
business, which was shown by the for customers from Central Asia to
acquisition of Elbar in The The Netherlands and from

Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 1

 Contents
A New Service Entity is Born...........1

Emergency Expander Repair...........2

Elbar’s Extended Coating

Capabilities .....................................3

Gas Turbine Overhaul ....................4

Turnkey Overhaul on an Axial

Compressor Train ...........................5
Mating the expander shaft and
Geographical Responsibilities .....6,7 discs after repairs

50 MW Steam Turbine Repair ........8

Hickham Industries’
Repair of GT Components..............9 Emergency Expander Repair
News & People .............................10 In November of 2000, Hickham addition to completely reclaiming all
Industries (HII) received a call from of the geometrics associated with
Integration of New Entity ...............11 one of the largest U.S. producers of the expander casing components
electricity concerning a failure of via remachining, steps such as
one of their generating units in solution-annealing, shaft sub-arc
New Advertising Campaign ..........12 Oklahoma. welding, and at-speed balancing of
Upon inspection of the the rotor were also implemented to
machine, it was apparent that field enhance the reliability for the
Turbo Talk repairs were not an option. A plan
was developed to mobilize field
overall machine. The customer
was able to obtain all of these
Turbo Talk is the newsletter of resources, remove the unit, and services within the Hickham
Sulzer Turbomachinery Services. ship it to Hickham’s facilities in organization.
LaPorte, Texas. Once at HII’s field personnel were
It can be downloaded from the Hickham, the unit was to be called upon again, once the
internet at www.sulzerSTS.com or completely disassembled, machine was back in Oklahoma.
ordered by mail through any of our cleaned, inspected, and its The installation was successful, and
entities as well as our
components evaluated for repair. upon placing the expander into
headquarters:
Due to the characteristics of the service, the customer related that
Sulzer Turbomachinery Services installation, HII field personnel they were surprised to find that they
Angela Christen were presented a significant were now able to generate in
Neuwiesenstrasse 15 challenge just to remove the excess of 21MW from a machine
CH-8400 Winterthur machine from its base. The inlet that was rated for 20MW. Further,
Switzerland plenum wall for the gas generator they stated that they had never had
had to be dismantled for access, any of their similar units run as well
Telephone: +41 (0)52-262 34 41 the exhaust stack (over 100 ft.) as this unit. All of the vibration
Fax: +41 (0)52-262 00 45
separated and supported, and a levels at full load were under
[email protected] myriad of piping and connections 0.0004 mils.
removed. Added to these A letter of appreciation for all
problems, the power turbine was Hickham personnel was received
installed inside the building from the plant manager for their
structure, severely limiting crane efforts.
access. All of these hurdles were
overcome and the unit was on its -Dave Dixon, Hickham Industries
way to Hickham after four days.
Once at HII’s facilities, the
disassembly, inspection, and
evaluation phase was implemented
on an around-the-clock basis. In

2 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001

 Shotpeening of LPPS coated
blades
Elcoat 37, chromium-alumide
diffusion coating

ELBAR's Extended
Coating Capabilities

Elbar has offered diffusion and infrastructure maintenance component by exposure to a

compressor coatings for more than engineering. ELBAR currently uses gaseous or powdery medium.
25 years. As of January 1, 2001, three different kinds of thermal Diffusion coatings provide
thermal spray activities, as well as spray technologies: superior oxidation, corrosion and
pre & post cleaning activities of the ! Low Pressure Plasma erosion resistance for applications
Interturbine Coating Center (ITC) Spraying (LPPS) as internal cavity coating and are
were integrated into the Elbar ! Atmospheric Plasma widely used as standard oxidation
organization. This organizational Spraying (APS) protection for external surfaces.
change makes ELBAR more Further superior properties are
flexible and competitive in this achieved by modified coating
rapidly growing business. The versions, using platinum or other
integration of the ITC thermal spray noble metal as alloying elements.
processes: Air Plasma Spraying
[(APS), 2 units] and Low Pressure Pre & Post Treatments
Plasma Spraying [(LPPS), 1 unit],
The pre & post treatment steps
now completes ELBAR’s coating
consist of a variety of cleaning,
capabilities. To add to their
peening, blasting, heat treatment,
flexibility, ELBAR also recently
and measurement tasks.
installed a HVOF unit.
The EB-PVD activities remain
at ITC and will continue under the -Peter van Neerven, Elbar
new name Sulzer Metco Coatings
BV. Sulzer Metco has thermal
spray activities in Wohlen,
Switzerland and Salzgitter, LPPS Equipment
Germany.
! High Velocity Oxy Fuel
Spraying (HVOF)
Detail of Processes
Thermal spray is an industrial
coating process consisting of a Diffusion Coating
heat source and a material Diffusion coating is a process
feedstock, either in powder or wire in which a base metal or alloy
form, that results in a surface- component is either coated with
modifying coating. Applications another metal or alloy and is
include protection from wear, high heated to a process specific
temperatures, chemical attack, and temperature within a closed
environmentally friendly use for environment. The coating is then
corrosion protection in diffused into the surface of the

Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 3

 PT Hickham Indonesia
Gas Turbine Overhaul

PT Hickham Indonesia (PTHI) its limitations, since the number of approximately 2 m (6.5 ft) long.
received an order to overhaul and times and amount that the shaft can Each of the disks have Hirth
repair a very large gas turbine rotor be ground down is strictly couplings ground on the faces that
at its workshop in Purwakarta West controlled. must be inspected for contact and
Java, Indonesia. This is the second For this job, PTHI has repaired, if required. Finally, the unit
time that PTHI has been successful proposed a unique solution utilizing will be fitted with X-Y proximity
in winning a competitive bid to our in-house HVOF coating system probes to supplement the existing
perform work on one of the massive that will keep the shaft at the velocity transducers.
55-ton, 132 MW rotors. By performing this work, PTHI
The units operate in utility has saved the customer both time
service on the Indonesian island of and money over prior repairs that
Sumatra, approximately 1500 km required export to another country.
(950 miles) from the shop. The PTHI is the only rotating equipment
rotor will be disassembled at the repair facility in Indonesia and only
site and loaded into four one of two in the entire Southeast
customized shipping containers for Asian region that can handle units
the three-day journey by sea. The of this size and weight.
unit must be shipped, inspected,
repaired and returned to site in only -Peter Alexander,
28 days! PT Hickham Indonesia
Once the rotor is received, it
will undergo complete inspection
including ultrasonic testing of the Disassembled rotor
massive 10 m long centerline tie-
bolt along with eddy current
inspection of the turbine disk fir original dimensions, cancel the
trees. necessity to replace the damping
The centerline tie-bolt has a cones, act as a deterrent to prevent
series of fit areas along the shaft fretting, and maintain the very tight
that are used to dampen transient schedule.
vibrations when the unit is starting Handling the parts safely and
up or shutting down. Over time, efficiently requires the use of
these fit areas become fretted and specially constructed turning,
worn. Historically, the solution has positioning and lifting fixtures. The
been to grind the fit areas rotor is made up of 20 disks with an
undersize and manufacture new average diameter of about 1.5 m
friction damper sleeves called (+/-5.5 ft) and a hollow shaft section
damping cones. This process has of the same diameter but

4 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001

Gas turbine rotor and diaphragm
during repair process

Sulzer Repco Turnkey Overhaul

on an Axial Compressor Train

Taking advantage of shared STZ, the project was not only

knowledge within the Sulzer concluded successfully, but in fact
organization proved a benefit to took just two months to complete.
Sulzer Repco and its client during a The customer expressed high
job in 1998. appreciation of the reduced
Sulzer Repco initially quoted to overhaul time, the quality of work,
perform the onsite turnaround on and the flexibility demonstrated.
an axial compressor train. The
turnaround (overhaul) was to be -Joris Ringelberg, Sulzer Repco
performed on an around-the-clock
basis. Axial compressor with
While Sulzer Repco would be steam turbine during the
responsible for the total project assembly phase
including overhauling the steam
turbine, insulation, scaffolding,
instrumentation, auxiliaries, piping,
Sulzer Turbo Zurich (STZ) and
Ravensburg (STR) were asked to
assist with the overhaul of the axial
compressor.
The compressor is a critical
element in the customer’s steel
making process. Thus, previous
overhauls had been conducted
using in-house maintenance
personnel and technical direction
supplied by STZ. This overhaul
would be different; Sulzer Repco
Sales Engineers convinced the
client that a turnkey project with an
outside source could save up to 2
months in the turnaround period.
The argument for change
succeeded and the work continued.
The previous overhauls had
taken 4 to 6 months, but with joint
cooperation from Sulzer Repco and

Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 5

 Geographical
Responsibilities

Providing a comprehensive to oversee areas of the globe specialized services. In this

approach to servicing a world which fall into natural trading manner, STS is positioned to
market is always challenging. routes. Regardless of who calls, a overcome many obstacles in the
Achieving superior results and customer will be channeled to the refurbishment of all critical
excellent responsiveness has been STS business unit for unmatched equipment.
met by working on a concept of responsiveness. Each unit
geographic responsibility. STS has operates independently yet may be
designated each of its companies dependent on one another for

STS Entity Leaders

Constantly in touch with all our customers around the world.

Brian McKenzie Parviz Tavakolly Berend von Bon Hans W. Strickler

President President General Manager President
Hickham Industries Elbar Sulzer Repco PT Hickham Indonesia

6 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001

 Compressor and steam turbine rotors
undergoing inspection

North America: Northeast Asia:

Hickham Industries Elbar

TM

INC.

Southeast Asia:
PT Hickham Indonesia
and Elbar
Elbar &
Sulzer Repco
Hickham Industries PT

INDONESIA

PT Hickham Indonesia

Australia:
Hickham Industries
South America:
Hickham Industries TM

INC.

TM
Europe, Africa,
Middle East,
INC.

Central Asia:
Elbar and
Sulzer Repco

Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 7

 Example of a fully-welded
and inserted steam turbine
diaphragm during the
machining process

Example of a steam turbine

disc reconstruction

50 MW
Steam Turbine Repair

Hickham Industries, Inc. problems since 1982, this was by diaphragms will be equipped with
recently secured a $3.5 million far the worst case in the history of new labyrinth seals. The thrust
contract with a copper company to this turbine. bearing will be upgraded to a low
completely rebuild and re- Upon receipt of the contract to profile “self leveling” type. This will
commission a 50 MW steam repair the turbine, HII dispatched a more than double the bearing's
turbine generator for the company's diagnostic team to the job site for load carrying capacity.
power plant in Utah. A new Bently an investigation into the root cause With the assistance of the
Nevada monitoring system and a of the failure. Supervised by John Technical Services Department,
new OEM turbine controls package East, HII’s Technical Services HII's Field Service Division will
will also be installed during the Department determined the root complete the turbine rebuild onsite.
turbine rebuild. cause of the failure and drafted the During start-up, HII will spend
Turbine Generator unit No.1 at specifications for a new turbine approximately seven days
the Utah Company's power plant monitoring system, which when monitoring case thermal growth
suffered severe damage when the properly implemented, will shut the and the overall performance of the
turbine rotor lost thrust and unit down prior to any damage unit.
migrated nearly half an inch toward occurring. The entire project is being
the generator end of the turbine. The H.P. rotor is being weld completed on an emergency basis.
This situation damaged the rotor, repaired via HII's submerged-arc The target commercial operation
diaphragms, bearings and seals. process with a recently developed date is set for the middle of April,
Though the turbine had been “narrow groove” welding process. 2001.
plagued with a number of After all weld repairs are
completed, seventeen rows of -Warren Holmes,
new blades will be installed in Hickham Industries
the rotors. Upon completion
of the H.P. and L.P. rotor
repairs, the rotors will be
coupled together and
balanced in HII's vacuum
balance bunker in a three
bearing configuration.
All diaphragms
manufactured with cast steel
inner and outer webs are
being weld repaired and
machined. The larger cast
iron diaphragms are being
HP and LP turbine being balanced at fitted with steel inserts
operational speed (3 bearing). designed to add strength. All
8 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001
 Zirconia type thermal
barrier coating

Combustion section

High cycle fatigue cracking

Repair of Gas
Turbine Components

No man-made object is perfect, combustion problems that are the outer liner. Extensive repair and
so the repair of equipment, parts, root-cause of this failure. The repair replacement is carried out to
and components is as old as of this component must restore restore structural integrity and part
mankind itself. base material properties and reliability. All damaged material is
Gas turbine parts, which are dimensional integrity. Since the replaced with new sub-
especially highly-stessed and time between overhauls of this components, made from a higher
valuable, are interesting objects to temperature nickel-base alloy.
repair when damaged. Before reassembling the sections
Commercially, however, repair is into an integral assembly, the inner
not as interesting to Original walls are coated with a zirconium-
Equipment Manufacturers as it is to based thermal barrier coating.
equipment owners. Therefore, most Operating experience shows that
knowledgeable repair companies this repair and modification doubles
are independent, and have to the lifetime of this component.
conduct independent engineering Currently, Elbar is the only
and development, e.g. they have to authorized repair source for this
work according to ISO 9001 costly and complex part.
standards.
Approximately two years ago, -Parviz Tavakolly,
Elbar was requested by several President of Elbar
customers to design and develop a
repair and life-extension program
for the combustor assembly of a
specific type of gas turbine. The
combustion of the gas turbine is a
modern, low NOx-type, natural gas Uncoated and bulged side
fired design. The component is walls before repair
produced as a welded assembly of
a carbon steel support ring,
austenitic stainless steel (AISI 300 component is rather low (10
series) burners and a body made thousand hours on average), some
of nickel base alloy. modifications to extend lifetime of
Combustion vibration can this component are carried out
produce high-cycle fatigue cracking during the repair cycle as well.
in otherwise sound material. For the repair, the assembly is
Damages of this type can usually sectioned into various modules or
be repaired. It is important, parts, such as the inner liner, the
however, to remove or reduce the burner support section and the

Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 9

 Industrial gas turbine rotor
overhaul

News & People

Peter A. Blok joined the STS team at Today he is located at Sulzer Repco
the beginning of February of this year. in the position of Contract Manager. He is
Peter was born in Rotterdam, The responsible for setting up new
Netherlands, in 1962. He started his Operations & Maintenance contracts and
working career as a freelance E&I the development and support of the
technician and in 1985 started working current contracts for STS.
with ConPackSys as an instrument Peter lives in Etten-Leur, near Breda,
designer and later as an instrument in The Netherlands, with his wife and
engineer. son. His favorite hobby is being a water
In 1998 he moved to Sulzer polo referee for the Dutch Premier
Netherlands as a Project Engineer and League. He also occasionally likes to
later as a Project Manager. play a game of squash and tennis.

Launching a new advertising campaign

STS launched a new advertising campaign, showing the combined global strength of our four entities to our
customers. An example of it can be found on the last page of this newsletter.

Sulzer Turbomachinery Services: Core in the Sulzer Portfolio

With the creation of the new business unit, comprising of the independent rotating equipment service
companies and with the acquisition of Elbar, Sulzer has shown its commitment to the independent service
provision to customers.

Divestiture of Sulzer Turbo

At the end of last year, Sulzer Turbo, the turbocompressor original equipment manufacturing business unit of
Sulzer, was sold to MAN Turbomaschinen AG, GHH BORSIG, best known under the name MAN GHH BORSIG
or MGB, a unit of the MAN group in Germany.

Portfolio of Sulzer Industries

In a press conference held in March 2001, CEO Fred Kindle announced that the portfolio for Sulzer Industries
will be comprised of four core business units: Sulzer Turbomachinery Services, Sulzer Metco, Sulzer
Chemtech, and Sulzer Pumps. These units together with Sulzer Hexis (a new venture unit) all have aggressive
targets for future expansion.

Record financial results of Sulzer Industries

The group operating income for 2000 has increased 97% compared with 1999.

10 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001

 Management team of Sulzer
Turbomachinery Services
Integration of New Entity

First workshop at Elbar, Elbar’s capabilities and facilities. At companies and their processes and
November 1 - 6, 2000 the end of the workshop, task technologies.
The Sulzer acquisition of Elbar forces were set up dealing with During the first day of the
B.V. in The Netherlands became people transfers, technology second workshop, Hickham
effective on November 1st, 2000. transfers, mutual learning and Industries offered an extended
The excitement was high because market approaches. Our goals facility tour especially allowing the
all parties realized the great were to complete the integration participants of ELBAR to become
potential the STS team has in the process in a fast and efficient familiar with Hickham’s capabilities
global marketplace. The existing manner, resulting in benefits for
Sulzer Turbomachinery Services the most important people: our
organization, consisting of Hickham customers.
Industries Inc., Sulzer Repco, and On the last day of the
PT Hickham Indonesia, has a workshop, the CEO of Sulzer
product portfolio, market approach Industries, Mr. Fred Kindle, paid
and technology base largely a visit to Elbar and welcomed
complementary with the acquired the employees of Elbar to
Elbar entity. To build the team and Sulzer. Mr. Kindle took the
create a common understanding on opportunity to present Sulzer’s
where we want to go as a group, new Strategy and answered
an integration workshop with the questions from our new co-
management teams of all four workers.
entities were called together on Integration meeting during the second
November 1st. workshop in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Second workshop at Hickham
With the integration of Elbar, Industries, La Porte &
STS adopted the TGIS slogan, Fredericksburg, Texas February and technologies. Following this
which is the acronym for “Teaming 5 – 9, 2001 tour, many bilateral discussions
up to build a Global Independent During the first and second took place in order to obtain an in-
Service force”. Speed in accepting workshops, the task forces depth understanding of processes
changes, flexibility in working exchanged information about and cultures.
together and team spirit were such technology, development, I would like to thank all
strong characteristics of all people manufacturing, marketing and participants for their strong
and entities that the process sales, in order to find out where the contributions and look forward to
quickly showed the benefits of a four entities have overlaps, the next steps in the exciting
coordinated approach to the synergies, and where we can learn integration process.
market. from each other. In certain areas,
Comprehensive workshop key task force members paid visits -Hugo Herde,
tours at Elbar were organized to to other facilities in order to Senior Consultant and
familiarize the attendees with become acquainted with the other Integration Manager
Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 11
 Announcing an By sharing
expansion of global proportions. resources and technology
Sulzer Industries has acquired Elbar BV, a and through a blending of skills
leading turbine repair / surface materials tempered by experience, Sulzer
technology facility, based in Lomm, The Turbomachinery Services offers superior
Netherlands. With this acquisition, Elbar joins results, unmatched responsiveness and the
Hickham Industries, PT Hickham Indonesia, and greatest flexibility to our clients. We are
Sulzer Repco to form Sulzer Turbomachinery pleased to respond to the industries’ need for
Services - a truly global force in rotating equipment one worldwide source of reliable turbomachinery
repair services. services.
Sulzer For more information
Turbomachinery on how Sulzer
Services provides Turbomachinery
the power Services can expand
generation, your opportunities,
petrochemical, give us a call or visit
refining, pipeline, oil Sulzer
& gas, and other Turbomachinery
specialized process Services at
industries with the www.sulzerSTS.com,
most complete and learn how we
turbomachinery can help reduce your
repair and equipment
maintenance maintenance costs
organization in the and grow your
world. bottom line.

Turbomachinery Services
Hickham Industries, Inc. Elbar B.V. Sulzer Repco B.V. PT. Hickham Indonesia
11518 Old LaPorte Rd. Spikweien 36 Moezelweg 190 Kawasan Industri Kota Bukit Indah
LaPorte, Tx 77571 5943 AD Lomm NL-3198 LS Europoort Rt Blok A II, Kav. 1C - 1D
USA The Netherlands Harbournumber 5615 Purwakarta 41181, Indonesia

Phone: (713)-567-2700 Phone: +31(77) 4738666 Phone: +31 (181) 282 000 Phone: +62 (264) 351 920
Toll free: 1-800-324-6540 Fax: +31 (77) 4732785 Fax: +31 (181) 282 002 Fax: +62 (264) 351 143
Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

TM
PT

INC.
INDONESIA

www.hickham.com www.elbar.nl www.repco.nl www.pthickham.com

12 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001