Invensys Operations Management (IOM) saved 60 hours, or about 5% in man-hours, in a mechanical upgrade to a steam turbine by using NVision’s Engineering Service Division to capture precise measurements of valves and other hardware. IOM usually has to spend considerable time field machining upgrade components prior to installation because accurate drawings are not always available. “NVision’s laser scanning provides highly accurate measurements, reducing engineering time and eliminating the need for field machining,” said Michael Montesinos, Senior Applications Engineer for the Turbo Machinery Group of IOM, Webster, Texas.
IOM, a division of Invensys, is a leading provider of automation and information technology, systems, software solutions, services and consulting to the global manufacturing and infrastructure industries. Its Turbo Machinery Group provides electromechanical hydraulic upgrades to electrical power generation, oil refining, nuclear, pulp and paper, and chemical plants. Drawings are not usually available for these projects either because they have been lost over time or because the OEM that originally installed the equipment closely guards detailed drawings in an attempt to improve their position as a service provider and OEM.
In the past, designers and engineers had to spend extra time in designing the new equipment to account for dimensional uncertainties. After the equipment was built and delivered, measurements had to be taken to determine what adjustments needed to be made to the equipment. The equipment was sent to a local machine shop to make the adjustments. It’s important to note that this process needed to be carried out during a turnaround when the plant was shut down for maintenance and improvements. Extending a plant outage beyond the planned timeline typically carries a cost of several hundred thousand dollars in lost generating revenue.
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