A Fancier Coat

BY IAN CAMERON

Turbine Efficiency said it has developed a new coating which it said can offer efficiency gains for compressor blades.

The company, based in Lincoln, England, carries out a range of duties including engine overhaul, installation, maintenance, operation and the servicing of gas turbines and their associated equipment.

The company said it has upgraded the coating it supplies to machinery, notably to compressor blades.

Turbine Efficiency said its improved GWS coating said its overall range of technologies can improved blade efficiency and reduce the fouling rate of compressors.

With an expected overall efficiency improvement of 0.2 – 0.3% and preliminary calculations showing improvements on ISO compressor efficiency, this upgrade, combined with HEPA filtration, can reduce or remove the need of stoppages for compressor cold washing.  Higher efficiency and reduced downtime will lead to overall annual cost savings, the company said.

With the upgraded GWS coating the company said it can now offer a chrome-free high temperature erosion as the final layer.

“Our three-layer system supported by the traditional sacrificial overlay coating, improves the surface profile of the compressor blades and thus reduces the environmental deposits that adhere during service,” said Turbine Efficiency’s technical repair manager, Paul Holder.

The GWS system produces a surface profile of <10 Ra @ 0,003” cut off compared to ~20 Ra for the original sacrificial coating systems, the company added.

The first salt spray and corrosion tests have been successful and contract blades are currently being assembled for an offshore customer, the company said.

“The GWS coating product was developed in-house to combine the best of the coatings available to the company to ensure it can apply the coating first time without any complications,” added Holder.

The company said that because of health implications, under European Union regulations a company that currently uses chrome within its coating mixture will have to swap to chrome-free.

Turbine Efficiency also recently revealed it has significantly grown its business and made several, new appointments. Since the beginning of 2017 it has secured six Long Term Service Agreements contracts and carried out “numerous” Siemens SGT-100, SGT-200 and SGT-300 gas turbine overhauls.

A series of senior appointments has also been made with Chris Turner filling the post of chief executive officer. Most recently he was managing director UK and USA with Brush Turbogenerators Group having started his career in the UK Royal Navy as a marine engineering officer.

Trevor Swales has been appointed as executive chairman following a career which has included posts at companies including Doncasters, Firth Rixson, Lonestar and, more recently, Bromford Industries.

Mike Giles has been appointed to the permanent position of finance director. His previous companies include Umeco Plc where he progressed to the role of group operations finance director.

Turbine Efficiency was established in 2000 and today has more than 80 employees. The company’s services also include gas turbine rotor balancing, remote monitoring and control systems servicing and upgrades.

www.turbine-efficiency.com