One of the unique aspects of the 7F Users Group’s 2020 Digital Conference is the opportunity to interact online with the OEM and nearly 50 third-party solutions providers. Ten companies in the latter group were selected by the steering committee to conduct live technical presentations of one or two hours during Weeks Two, Three, and Four of the five-week program ending July 16.

The remaining solutions providers participated in the conference with virtual booths in the Vendor Fair conducted Tuesday and Wednesday of Week One. They connected directly with users via video (or audio) links.

In case you missed the opportunity to visit with one or more of these companies at the Vendor Fair, the editors have compiled brief summaries of the products/services they showcased, along with links to that information. The names of experts to contact for details are included.

Exhibitors not included in the list below were profiled in CCJ ONsite two weeks ago or last week, or will appear in our next edition. Products and services offered by virtual exhibitors Allied Power Group, GTC Control Solutions, Nel Hydrogen, Nitto Inc, Parker Hannifin Corp, Dekomte de Temple, Conax Technologies, Donaldson Company, ESC/Spectrum, and Hilco can be reviewed in Part I of this four-part series. 

Part II of the series featured offerings from Mercer Thompson/IEM Energy Consultants, AP+M, Braden Filtration, Bureau Veritas, Groome Industrial Service Group, Pioneer Motor Bearing, VAW Systems, National Electric Coil, Nord-Lock Group, and Rochem Technical Services.

Liburdi Turbine Services

Case study of previously repaired 7FA first-stage turbine buckets

Justin Kuipers, a senior materials engineer with deep experience in gas-turbine component analysis and repair development, discusses the results of metallurgical analyses performed on four 7FA+e first-stage buckets. Each airfoil had been repaired by a different vendor using a different approach. The metallurgical condition and extent of the prior repairs are presented for each of the buckets following one additional service interval.

The 7FA+e presents demanding repair requirements. The first-stage bucket employs a hollow design with serpentine cooling passages, showerhead cooling along the leading edge, a tip cover plate, and welded and brazed details within the cooling passages. Such enhanced design features are conducive to challenging repairs with narrow tolerances—that is, less room for error. This calls for an increased reliance on metallurgical analysis for evaluating component condition, repair requirements, and qualification of repair results.

Key takeaways for users include the following:

• • 7FA first-stage buckets have characteristic damage modes.

  • Different shops have different repair strategies and processes, resulting in a range of possible outcomes from high-risk operation to good-as-new performance.

  • Internal coatings must be replaced to achieve multiple repair cycles.

  • Various heat treatments are used in repairs and they are important to understand.

  • Know the critical quality-control steps in component repair and how to reliably extend the service lives of valuable components.

Parker Hannifin Gas Turbine Filtration

Inlet air filtration solutions

Paul Barron, North American regional sales manager, and Sales Manager Abby Rowe met users in their virtual booth, updating them on the company’s line of inlet air filters and systems capable of superior performance over a wide range of environmental conditions. They reminded the owner/operators of the company’s two popular brands of filtration products: Altair® and clearcurrent™. Parker’s GT filtration options include the following: cartridge, vCell, pocket or panel filter. Complete gas-turbine inlet filtration systems, including evap coolers, also are offered.

Parker Hannifin was represented in two stands at the 7F Users Group’s virtual Vendor Fair. The company’s line of electrohydraulic servo valves, approved by GE for use on its gas and steam turbines, were promoted in the other booth and profiled in Part I of CCJ ONsite’s exhibit-hall coverage. 

Moog Inc

Conceptual hybrid IGV positioning systems for large GE frame engines

Moog manufactures precision motion-control and positioning systems for gas and steam turbines, but may be known best to powerplant O&M personnel for its servo valves used to control hydraulic cylinders in many power-generation applications. Steve Beddick and Ken Kauppila teamed up to review hybrid electro-hydrostatic positioning systems and how they can be configured to replace the hydraulic IGV actuation systems sometimes associated with operational issues on GE Frame 6 and Frame 7 gas turbines.

Turbine Logic

Eliminating GT unplanned outages caused by combustion hardware and instrumentation failures

This presentation by Ben Emerson, manager, combustor and hot section, at Turbine Logic, and senior research engineer in Georgia Tech’s School of Aerospace Engineering, introduces a novel combustion-dynamics monitoring algorithm and a case study to demonstrate its successful detection of a gas-turbine combustor fault. Recall that combustor faults can cause expensive damage to both combustor and hot-section components.

These failures often develop from small, insipient faults which product subtle signatures in the combustion-dynamics data. Fault signatures can be detected by advanced monitoring algorithms before parts fail and force the unit out of service.

The algorithm described in the presentation, developed in conjunction with EPRI, blends data analytics with combustion domain expertise. It is fielded on a fleet of frame units and has caught several faults at sufficiently early stages to plan repairs without a forced outage. Emerson presents an overview of the algorithm’s core logic, enumerates the types of faults that the algorithm commonly catches, and closes with a detailed case history.

AP+M

T2020 bi-phase compressor cleaner

AP+M had two booths at the 7F Users Group’s virtual Vendor Fair. Last week, the company’s “Outage in a Box” consumable kit solution for GE Frame 6B, 7E, and 7F engines was included in CCJ ONsite’s event coverage; this week, AP+M’s compressor cleaning solution is featured.

Craig Sonnenberg and Jerrod Walters connected for a deep dive into the features of the company’s water-based T2020 bi-phase compressor cleaner, an advanced product with solvent cleaner characteristics but without the hazards associated with solvent cleaners.

Strategic Power Systems Inc

Powerplant analytics and optimization

Salvatore A DellaVilla Jr, founder and CEO of SPS is one of relatively few industry executives who needs no introduction. His deep knowledge of gas turbines goes back to the ordering boom that followed the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965. Most recently, DellaVilla was appointed managing director of the Gas Turbine Association.

His presentation at the virtual Vendor Fair was about ORAP®, Strategic Power Systems’ powerful database system that allows for the capture of data from powerplants operating worldwide and provides the value-added tools to support effective O&M decision-making.

Every powerplant requires data to make informed decisions and to satisfy its numerous reporting requirements, DellaVilla says. While a tremendous amount data are available, organizing it, and then transforming it into actionable information can be difficult and time-consuming. That’s what ORAP does.

Case histories incorporated into the presentation highlight ways owner/operators have used ORAP to create an information architecture within their businesses—including RAM, KPIs, and benchmarking; critical- and capital-parts planning, and automation to optimize time and productivity.

Listen to DellaVilla and come away with the following:

• • How to use data and analytics to drive down costs and improve productivity.

  • Satisfy all management, ISO/NERC GADS, and other reporting requirements with one set of data.

  • Benchmarking: Learn how you stack up against your peers.

  • Optimize your availability: Use data to stop issues before they happen.

  • Ensure knowledge transfer and consistency across multiple plants.

  • Transparency and lessons learned: Don’t repeat mistakes.

  • Identify problems in the fleet that you might not have experienced yet.

  • Have a complete perspective of your serialized parts—in operating units and inventory—including ageing over time.

C C Jensen, Oil Maintenance

Remote oil condition monitoring as a CBM tool including varnish—an update

Has Axel Wegner ever missed an opportunity to speak before a group of powerplant owner/operators about his passion—lube-oil condition monitoring and filtration? Certainly not in the last 10 years. If you have not listened to the solutions-oriented chemical engineer and want to learn how to deal effectively with the following problems:  

• • Turbine oil varnish.

  • Particles and water in lube oil.

  • Bacteria, diesel bugs, fungi, particles, and water in backup diesel storage tanks for dual-fuel plants.

Listen to the presentation he recorded for the 7F 2020 virtual Vendor Fair. You might even consider showing it to the plant O&M staff during a lunch-and-learn session.

Wegner points out that the “right” condition-monitoring and filtration system for any machine and oil type allows you to identify problems remotely and to take action before problems occur.

Badger Industries

Consolidate exhaust-system maintenance to reduce costs and maximize runtime (users only)

Operations Manager Matt Long and Field Service Manager Gary Neimann team up to highlight Badger’s service options for streamlining the maintenance of exhaust-system components from the turbine to the HRSG. Highlights of the presentation include these:

• • The value proposition for upgrading the flex seal rather than opting for the OEM’s leaf seal replacement.

  • Repairs available for the A042 diffuser duct for increased thermal efficiency and longer life.

  • Single-source provider for expansion joints and service labor.

The company’s products/services include the following: turbine exhaust expansion joint, 7F flex-seal upgrade, A042 diffuser duct, HRSG inlet expansion joint, pipe penetration seals, thermographic analysis, and failure analysis.

Emerson Automation Solutions

Advanced condition monitoring with Ovation (users only)

Jason King, machinery health solutions manager, discusses how turbomachinery protection and condition monitoring can be accomplished on the same platform as the turbine controls, providing automated diagnostics to operators without requiring them to learn vibration analysis. For vibration analysts, onsite or at a remote diagnostics center, full-featured analysis capability is possible while still meeting cybersecurity requirements.

SVI Dynamics

Defining and implementing SCR improvements on gas-turbine exhaust (users only)

Stringent regulations on NOx, CO, and ammonia slip are dictating the need for highly efficient SCR systems. Although CO and SCR catalyst designs are advancing to meet these new regulations, SCR system designs are not always equipped to manage the performance requirement improvements.

Industry veteran Bill Gretta, SVI Dynamics’ SCR product-line director, understands. His company, he says, has incorporated years of knowledge and experience gained from work on SCRs manufactured by all of the major vendors into SVI’s new SCR. If new is not optimal, SVI can provide in-depth analysis of your SCR to suggest enhancements that will improve reliability and efficiency.

Part of Gretta’s presentation illustrates the benefits of CFD modeling in guiding performance upgrades. He also explains how SVI would conduct a design review of your system and how to develop a PM inspection plan for your SCR.