Preparing for Hydrovision

Canadian Steel Foundries

Canadian Steel Foundries supplies steel castings to the power generation energy and other high technology companies worldwide. The company recently acquired new technology and has added a new metal analyser for iron and steel (ARL3460) and a new sulphur determinator (LECO CS4000) to its range. For dimensional control, the company says the acquisition of a portable 12ft articulating arm will shortly complement its new Leica TDM5000 theodolite three-axis measuring unit. The acquisitions exemplify CSF’s investment in technology to maintain its position as market leader. The company says its technical expertise helps provide customers with cost-effective concurrent engineering using pro-engineer and magmasoft solidification modelling.

Greenland Corporation

The Greenplus range of environmentally safe, vegetable oil based lubricants will be demonstrated at Hydrovision by Greenland Corporation. According to Greenland, Greenplus lubricants are non-toxic to the environment and safe for operating and maintenance staff, and are also rapidly biodegradable. The products do not contain petroleum, heavy metals or synthetics. The company says they have high natural viscosity and stability, and are superior lubricants that can improve the performance levels of machinery, reduce costly downtime and ultimately increase productivity. Greenplus will feature hydraulic fluid, grease, industrial gear oils, chain saw bar lubricant, wire rope lubricant, line shaft turbine fluid and form release agent.

Iris Power Engineering Inc

The PDA partial discharge test is used to evaluate the condition of stator winding insulation. Iris offers both portable monitoring (PDA-IV) and continuous monitoring (GenGuard) systems, and the company has introduced AdvanceView, a sophisticated graphics software package, to help users interpret results and identify failure mechanisms. This allows maintenance personnel to select the best repair activity for hydrogenerator stator windings.

ABB Power Generation, Inc

ABB’s Powerformer is claimed to be the first generator able to supply directly to the high voltage network, without the need for transformers. The Powerformer generates electricity at voltage of 20-400kV, using advanced cable technology to generate high voltage electricity directly, making a transformer and related equipment unnecessary. ABB says the Powerformer design brings other benefits: reduced maintenance costs, greater network stability and more reliable performance during periods of short-term power overload. It can be custom-built to provide any output voltage.

RRS Industries Inc

RRS Industries offers the Tuffloat log/debris boom and boat restraining barrier. The company claims a customer base for this product that includes: US Bureau of Reclamation; US Army Corps of Engineers; Pacific Gas & Electric; Niagara Mohawk Power; Consolidated Hydro; Ontario Hydro; Duke Power; and Los Angeles Water District.

ge-hydro

Commissioning activities have begun at the Tianhungping pumped storage station for East China Power. The first of six 333MVA 18kV 500rpm generator-motor units began rotational tests in late May this year and it is performing well. There are very few sites in the world with the power and speed combination of this set. GE Hydro has been working on the design and manufacture of the units since the contract award in 1993 and has applied technologies learned from other sites with machines of similar rating. The new technologies applied will serve to increase performance.

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories

Schweitzer’s first relay for generator protection will be on show at Hydrovision. The SEL-300G relay combines a suite of sensitive accurate generator protection elements with an exceptional monitoring package, plus optional current differential and synchronism checking functions.

The SEL-300G is said to meet the needs of many users, including utility and industrial power plants. The SEL-300G can monitor off-frequency operating time accumulation in up to six off-nominal frequency bands. Stator ground protection elements, sensitive directional power elements and under/over frequency protection are included.

Lindsey Fabricators

The Hartman Fixed Cone Valve will be featured by Lindsey Fabricators at Hydrovision. The new fixed cone design departs from convention by using four independent hydrodynamically contoured ribs and a blunt ended cone to prevent pressure fluctuations across the ribs and load the cone in torsion. This is said to eliminate vibration problems and fatigue failures of the rib welds. The valve has a drip-tight metal-to-metal seat that allows the valve to operate vibration-free at extremely low flows, because of a continuous 360° balanced flow. The seat also provides precision flow control in the first 10% of valve stroke with a truly linear flow curve.

MCM Enterprise Ltd

A milestone — 100 in-service operating years — is being celebrated for MCM Enterprises’ HydroScan rotor-mounted generator condition monitoring system. According to MCM, the system saves users millions of dollars in maintenance and repair costs through predictive maintenance practices and diagnostic assessment of operating conditions. It has also provided the basis for condition monitoring of lead-acid batteries. MCM says that the CellSense non-invasive battery condition monitoring and management system also demonstrates that, as with generators, conventional maintenance practices frequently accelerate system failure.

Canadian Hydro

Components Ltd

Hydraulic turbines specifically designed for low to medium head sites, ranging in size from 500mm to 2000mm throat diameter, are available from Canadian Hydro. The company offers a complete well to wire package for projects from 50kW to 5MW.

Ideal Electric Co

Ideal Electric celebrates 95 years in business at this year’s Hydrovision. Ideal specialises in custom design and manufacture of electric generators, motors, and associated switchgear and controls. The company has more than 200 sites and 600 units in operation worldwide, and offers units up to 25MVA, with efficiencies exceeding 98% and overspeeds to 300%. Ideal also offers to build and test 50Hz and 60Hz machines.

Energy Transfer Inc

Energy Transfer offers custom-made helically finned tubing for generator coolers, hydrogen coolers and thrust bearing oil coolers. Hydro-generator cooler tubes have an integral belled end design that eliminates seams and avoids costly leak problems. Tubes are available in numerous materials and fin-to-tube construction combinations, including solder coated. Bending and coiling can be carried out to customer specifications.

Hydropower Turbine

Systems Inc

HTS is now offering its stationary hydraulic rakes with a traversing feature. The company’s trash rack cleaners are heavy duty raking devices operated by hydraulic servo motors. They clean individual sections of trash rack screens by moving a horizontal rake bar (with wiper and optional toothed ice scraper) from the extreme down position up to the operating deck. The hydraulic power unit is mounted on the trolley car and has a stainless steel hood to protect its components.

Rakes keep trash racks clean of floating and submerged trash that collects on the bar screen. Each cleaning cycle covers a section of the intake width equal to the rake head length. Operation is automatic or manual. Automatic operation is time interval or level differential controlled, starting the cleaning cycle with subsequent discharge into a sluice trough, container or belt conveyor, until the full width of the intake is cleaned.

Bonneville Machine

Bonneville Machine claims to lead the field in large-diameter babbitt bearing repair and manufacturing. The company says it can spin cast and machine up to 128in diameter and 2,000,000lb, and can rebabbitt thrust bearings with no limit on size. It manufactures bronze wicket gate bushings and wear rings to 128in OD.

Bonneville has in-house level II-certified ultrasonic technicians.

Wisconsin Centrifugal

Wisconsin Centrifugal will feature seamless hydro turbine seals, 14ft diameter and larger, as segments. Representatives will demonstrate the valuable wear and galling properties of aluminium bronze and nitronic 60, said to improve efficiency in Francis turbines.

For Kaplan turbines, the company supplies, ready to install, finish machined bronze bushings such as runner blade seals, piston bushings, thrust washers and shaft sleeves.

Powertech Labs Inc

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of B C Hydro, Powertech Labs has more than 70 technical personnel at its 18-laboratory test facility. The company aims to offer cost-effective practical solutions in chemical, civil, mechanical, electrical, environmental, metallurgical and materials engineering. Of special hydro interest is the company’s expertise in turbine welding, generator and stator insulation testing, certification of self-lube bearing materials and power cable evaluation.

Rotocast Plastic Products

Rotocast’s line of regulatory marker buoys and modular platforms will be on show at Hydrovision. The buoys help hydroelectric projects to meet FERC guidelines for marking dam areas, while floatballs and perimeter floats may be used for barriers. The modular pontoons are used as flotation for dredgeline, pumps, work platforms and boats. The products are made of high-impact polyethylene and are urethane foam filled.

Kuenz America

Kuenz America markets and services products from Austria-based Künz. At Hydrovision it is showing: trashrack cleaning machines, which offer fully automatic operation and cleaning depths up to 150ft, including operation while the turbine runs at maximum capacity; power house cranes for heavy and valuable loads; stop-log cranes; and hydraulic steel structures.

Fematics Canada

Fematics Canada is celebrating 30 years experience in engineering and manufacturing turbine seals and replacement parts. The company produces seals for turbines worldwide with shaft sizes from 4in to 893/4in. It also manufactures replacement parts for existing seals and provides retrofit units to replace existing seals and outdated stuffing boxes.

black-veatch

Black & Veatch offers to meet any or all of its clients engineering, procurement and construction needs for hydro power and hydraulic structures. The company has 7000 staff in 90 offices worldwide, and their expertise includes design and construction of new structures, upgrades and rehabilitations and licensing and environmental services. It claims experience in more than 750 hydro power projects including storage and conventional facilities, dams, penstocks, turbines, generators, tunnels, gates and valves. The company says its experience, high rankings and reputation have led its clients to expect success.

rittmeyer Ltd

Rittmeyer specialises in process control and instrumentation for water and energy management for hydro power, hydrography, river flow regulation and water supply. The company offers instrumentation and service for ultrasonic flow measurement in single and multi-path technology, closed conduits up to 40ft in diameter and open channels up to a width of 150ft. Also offered are pressure and level measuring instrumentation with accuracies up to 0.01% FS, as well as robust position transmitters and clamp-on angle transmitters for measurement and control of gates, flaps and valves.