Easy Damper Drive Replacement on Steam Turbines

3 day damper drive
replacement and
turn-around.

Reprinted with permission from Rotork Type K

Two turbine intake radial vane dampers were equipped with pneumatic controllers which had become obsolete. The old actuators did not respond quickly and accurately to signals from the control system, resulting in potentially inefficient combustion and undesirable emissions. Replacing the actuators was necessary to increase efficiency, reduce maintenance and the associated costs that could result from unplanned shutdowns.

The equipment selected to upgrade the old actuators was Rotork Type K damper drives, which provide a direct ‘drop-in-place’ replacement that exactly matches the existing damper drive footprint and output shaft location. Duplication of the existing drive’s dimensions simplifies the installation, enabling the upgrade to be swiftly completed in a matter of hours.

Type K damper drives incorporate vane type actuators that offer high speed full stroke capabilities of less than 5 seconds, combined with accurate and responsive positioning. The rugged construction is designed to withstand the harsh environments associated with power stations and combustion plants.

Once the two Type K pedestal mounted damper drive units had been delivered, installation of both units was performed by engineers from Rotork Site Services within three days.

Days one and two were taken up with the removal of the old equipment and the installation of new, enabling commissioning, testing and hand-over to be completed during day three.

For more information on Rotork Type K Damper Drives, visit this link or call Power Specialties at (816) 353-6550.

A Guide to Safe Electronic Weighing in Hazardous Locations

Process weighing (BLH Nobel)

An excellent document, published by BLH Nobel, on maintaining safety in hazardous areas with electronic weighing. Always discuss any hazardous area application with a qualified engineering company or consultant before installing or reconfiguring any process control equipment.

For more information visit this link, or contact:
Power Specialties, Inc.
www.powerspecialties.com | (816) 353-6550

A Guide to Safe Electronic Weighing in Hazardous Locations from Power Specialties, Inc.

Thermal Mass Flowmeters for "Green Completions" in Oil & Gas Production

Thermal Mass Flowmeter
(Courtesy of Fox ThermalInstruments)

When a natural gas well site is drilled and developed, there is often an excess of natural gas which escapes into the atmosphere or is burned off in a flaring process.  As the EPA continues to tighten regulatory restrictions on gas production emissions, the Oil & Gas Industry is moving to the EPA recommended "Reduced Emissions Completions (RECs)" or “Green Completion” technology.  This technology captures escaping methane and other hydrocarbons at the well head. Instead of releasing or flaring it, green completion introduces equipment that provides a closed-loop systems that captures this gas, separates the gas from oil, water, mud in the flowback stream, and produces a clean ready to use new gas stream that would normally be lost.

Not only is this technology good for the environment, it is also provides economic benefits to the operators. Whereas open pits release a significant amount of combustion emissions and VOCs into the atmosphere, and flaring produces significant amounts of combustion emissions, green completion technology uses closed storage and vapor recovery. The methane and hydrocarbons are recovered and fed back into the system as a product for sale, or are recovered to power equipment and machinery on-site for additional cost savings.

Thermal mass flow meter applications are abundant. Used primarily to measure the flow of gases from the outlet of the separator tanks or to monitor fuel gas usage, there are also additional applications on the various pieces of well-site equipment.

For more information on applying thermal mass flowmeters in oil and gas applications, contact:

Power Specialties, Inc.
9118 E. 72nd Terrace
Raytown, MO 64133
Toll Free: (800) 432-6550
Phone: (816) 353-6550
www.powerspecialties.com

Rotating the Control Head on a Yokogawa ADMAG AXF Magnetic Flowmeter

Yokogawa AXF magnetic flowmeter

The Yokogawa AXF magnetic flowmeter is a sophisticated product with outstanding reliability and ease of operation, developed on the basis of decades of field experience. Based on FOUNDATION™ fieldbus specifications, AXF Fieldbus Magnetic Flowmeter models offer more flexible instrumentation.

The ADMAG AXF is the magnetic flowmeter which has adopted the proven Dual Frequency Excitation. Moreover, the Enhanced Dual Frequency Excitation has been newly added to tackle more severe applications.

The AXF has user-friendly functions; such as an electrode adhesion level diagnosis function, infra-red switches which can be used for setting parameters without opening the case cover, ability to change the direction of electrical connection on the site.

Based on FOUNDATION™ fieldbus specifications, AXF Fieldbus models offer more flexible instrumentation through a higher level communication capability and propose the cost reduction by multi-drop wirings with less cables.

This video demonstrates how to rotate the control head in the event it is oriented in the wrong direction.