Steam Turbine Seal Upgrades
EthosEnergy solves problems associated with conventional design horizontal joint fasteners in opposed flow HP/IP steam turbines— loss of clamping force, steam leakage, steam cutting, and performance loss due to HP steam leaking into the IP section of the machine with our Upgraded Horizontal Joint Bolting Hardware. This upgrade greatly improves the ability of the horizontal joint hardware to maintain clamping for a full operating cycle, whereas original design components become compromised and allow leakage as soon as a few months after an overhaul.
EthosEnergy machines articulated snout rings to fit your steam turbine before they leave our facility to avoid on-site machining time. We can carry out the entire process of engineering, manufacture and installation within your outage schedule.
What can we do to help?
Design Features
Upgraded Materials Allow Better Clamping Force at Joint
Manufactured out of upgraded materials the EthosEnergy improved hardware is able to provide significantly higher clamping force at unit assembly. It also retains the clamping force for a full operating cycle until the next major outage. Original design components suffer lower rates of thermal expansion than the case material. As the unit is heating up the case expands at a higher rate than the bolting hardware. Eventually it overcomes the clamping force of the bolting and relaxing the stud material opening the joint. The threads on the bolts and studs can also get stripped or damaged compromising clamping force and requiring destructive removal at disassembly.
Why choose EthosEnergy’s Upgraded Horizontal Joint Bolting Hardware?
The Ethos approach to addressing this issue is twofold: upgraded hardware material and a double nut configuration.
- Upgraded Hardware
- Standard bolting material for mid span areas is poorly suited to the high temperature, high stress environment of the casings. Our upgraded materials incorporates much higher strength at elevated temperatures.
- Double Nut configuration
- When developing this solution, EthosEnergy found that even with the upgraded bolting material, creep damage may still limit the life of the assembly. In this instance, a custom design double nut configuration may be implemented.
Speak with one of our Steam Turbine Seal experts today and discover how we can help your business!
