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Background
Turbine Blade Testing Case Study
H&E Stork Turbo Blading is the premier independent manufacturer of rotating and stationary blading for steam & gas turbines, axial compressors, and hot gas expanders. To ensure product quality, the natural frequencies are checked before each delivery to the customer. H&E Stork is in the business of providing fast, reliable, flexible, personalized service, and needed a business partner with the same high standard to frequency test blades & related power plant services.
To ensure accuracy under various settings and conditions, SimuTech Group measures blade frequencies with distinct boundary conditions during turbine blade testing. This includes, “free-free”, fixtured, installed on a rotor, and during operation.
Engineering Challenge
Steam Turbine Replacement
During a maintenance outage, H&E Stork’s customer (a power plant) encountered an urgent need for a row of steam turbine blades. In addition, pre-installation steam turbine testing.
With the plant losing over $1M per day, every hour of the manufacturing process was critical. H&E Stork needed fast and reliable frequency testing for quality assurance.
Thankfully, SimuTech Group performs laboratory & on-site steam turbine testing, campbell testing, torsional vibration, and testing of blade groups on rotors.
Engineering Solution
Turbine Blade Testing
Static stresses can be measured or computed with resembling accuracy, but dynamic stresses are evaluated more precisely through experimental rather than theoretical designs.
Consequently, blade frequency testing requires specialized approaches by engineers well-disciplined in the field.
By integrating frequency testing into the manufacturing process, SimuTech Group provided the rapid response and high quality of service that H&E Stork required.
Doing so allowed H&E Stork, in tandem with SimuTech Group engineers, to immediately retune blades that were not initially within specifications.
SimuTech Group is a valuable partner in our regular business of building blades for the turbo generation industry. We can always count on SimuTech Group to support our efforts in meeting or exceeding our customers’ expectations.
