Generator Users Group

By Clyde V Maughan, Maughan Generator Consultants (retired) This historical perspective on turbine-driven generators, in four parts, is based on Clyde Maughan’s recollections from a 72-year career in turbine/generator design, manufacturing, and service—half that time with General Electric Co, the remainder as an independent consultant. Having joined GE in 1950, and having worked closely with …

Generators: A brief history Read More »

Stator windings Groundwall insulation. Before the turn into the 20th century, insulating materials were natural products: shellac, cotton, paper. The rudimentary stator-winding designs were at low voltage and low temperatures, and apparently functioned fairly well as long as duties were kept sufficiently low. With inevitable trends to larger generators, with higher voltages and higher thermal …

Generator History, Part 1: Electrical insulation systems Read More »

Stator windings Slot support systems. From the beginning, stator bars were held in the slots by wedges of treated paper or hardwood. The electromagnetic forces were low (almost non-existent), the groundwall insulation was soft, and bars had little cause to vibrate. The wedges held the bars in the slots and kept them from falling out …

Generator History, Part 2: Winding support systems Read More »

Originally, generators were cooled by once-through open air flow. Contamination problems led to closed ventilation systems, with water-to-air heat exchangers to remove the thermal losses—the TEWAC cooling system (Totally Enclosed Water-to-Air Cooling). This type of system is still very popular for small generators. But by the 1930s, ratings were reaching a size where the ability …

Generator History, Part 3: Generator cooling methods Read More »

The mechanical duties on rotor forgings are extremely demanding on the high-speed generators typically coupled to gas and steam turbines, and great effort has gone into development and optimum application of these forgings. Thus, a few words on this topic are in order here. Rotor body forging The main rotor body forgings reached a crisis …

Generator History, Part 4: Generator rotor forgings Read More »

Clearly, this article, presented in the four sections bulleted below, provides a very general overview of generator history, with more left unsaid than said. No doubt there are errors of omission as well as commission. But hopefully the reader has gained a better appreciation for the efforts that went into the generator designs of today. …

Generators: Wrap-up Read More »

To understand the true value of a user group like the Generator Users Group, you must attend and participate in its collaborative, technical environment of generator experts. With the 2022 conference just one month away in San Antonio, the following intends to illustrate the unique content disseminated and absorbed by attendees. The 2021 conference of …

Generator Users Group: Video content assists owner/operators troubleshooting equipment issues Read More »

DIG DEEPER: SAN ANTONIO, AUGUST 28 – SEPTEMBER 1 The eighth annual meeting of the Generator Users Group returns to in-person conferencing at the Power Users mega event in the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter, August 29 through September 1, following virtual meetings in 2021 and 2020. From 2015 to 2019 in-person meetings were conducted in …

GUG 2022 Conference Preview Read More »

James Joyce, operations manager, MD&A’s Generator Repairs Div, speaking at the 2022 conference of the 7F Users Group, May 23-27, in the Fairmont Dallas Hotel, focused on three topics of particular importance to owner/operators of 7FH2 generators: Spring migration, collector changeout, and flex-link systems. All styles of 7FH2s—Gens One, Two, and Three, plus 324s—are affected …

Spring migration, collector changeout, flex-link systems Read More »