Sulzer Turbomachinery Services
Volume 1, Spring 2001
A New Service Entity Is Born
Ton Buechner
President of Sulzer Turbomachinery Services
Dear customer, co-worker, and business partner,
With enormous pleasure, the
Sulzer Turbomachinery Services
(STS) team welcomes the year
2001. We live and work in a
tremendously fast changing and
exciting industry and we are
looking forward to demonstrating
our service approach and flexibility
to our existing and new customers.
Last year saw significant
changes for many of us, both in the
industry and in our own
organizations. Sulzer created a
new entity by combining the
independent rotating equipment
service suppliers within its portfolio.
With this, in April 2000, Sulzer
Turbomachinery Services was
born, consisting of Hickham
Industries, Texas, USA, Sulzer
Repco in The Netherlands, and PT
Hickham in Indonesia. The
customer service attitude of the
STS team is famous throughout the
industry and the concept of
independent service is truly
appreciated by our customers.
The Sulzer Corporation (year
2000 turnover of approximately 3.7
Billion US $) is committed to our
business, which was shown by the
acquisition of Elbar in The
Netherlands, on November 1,
2000. Elbar is world renowned for
its incredible technological lead in
industrial gas turbine component
repair and component remaining-
lifetime assessments.
With the overall capabilities
and geographical presence in our
group, we will become the leading
global independent total-service
team to our customers. Each
company has wonderful strengths,
which they have proven throughout
their many years (some up to 26
years) of existence. Most recently,
STS has shown its increased
strength in combining capabilities
for customers from Central Asia to
The Netherlands and from
Germany to France. We will
continue this thrust to give true
meaning to the words “customer
service.”
This is the first issue of our
newly developed business
magazine, which we intend to bring
to you on a regular basis. We will
keep you informed about our key
projects and technological
developments.
I would like to thank all of our
co-workers for their dedication
and commitment to the creation
of our new entity, while
continuing to serve valued
customers with our well-known
traditional approach. I welcome
the Elbar co-workers into the
team and appreciate them
joining our business. We are
optimistic about the year 2001, in
which we have all intentions to
keep the excitement going!
Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 1
 Contents
A New Service Entity is Born...........1
Emergency Expander Repair...........2
Elbar’s Extended Coating
Capabilities .....................................3
Gas Turbine Overhaul ....................4
Turnkey Overhaul on an Axial
Compressor Train ...........................5
Geographical Responsibilities .....6,7
50 MW Steam Turbine Repair ........8
Repair of GT Components..............9
News & People .............................10
Integration of New Entity ...............11
New Advertising Campaign ..........12
Turbo Talk
Turbo Talk is the newsletter of
Sulzer Turbomachinery Services.
It can be downloaded from the
internet at www.sulzerSTS.com or
ordered by mail through any of our
entities as well as our
headquarters:
Sulzer Turbomachinery Services
Angela Christen
Neuwiesenstrasse 15
CH-8400 Winterthur
Switzerland
Telephone: +41 (0)52-262 34 41
Fax: +41 (0)52-262 00 45
angela.christen@sulzer.com
2 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001
Hickham Industries’
Emergency Expander Repair
In November of 2000, Hickham
Industries (HII) received a call from
one of the largest U.S. producers of
electricity concerning a failure of
one of their generating units in
Oklahoma.
Upon inspection of the
machine, it was apparent that field
repairs were not an option. A plan
was developed to mobilize field
resources, remove the unit, and
ship it to Hickham’s facilities in
LaPorte, Texas. Once at
Hickham, the unit was to be
completely disassembled,
cleaned, inspected, and its
components evaluated for repair.
Due to the characteristics of the
installation, HII field personnel
were presented a significant
challenge just to remove the
machine from its base. The inlet
plenum wall for the gas generator
had to be dismantled for access,
the exhaust stack (over 100 ft.)
separated and supported, and a
myriad of piping and connections
removed. Added to these
problems, the power turbine was
installed inside the building
structure, severely limiting crane
access. All of these hurdles were
overcome and the unit was on its
way to Hickham after four days.
Once at HII’s facilities, the
disassembly, inspection, and
evaluation phase was implemented
on an around-the-clock basis. In
Mating the expander shaft and
discs after repairs
addition to completely reclaiming all
of the geometrics associated with
the expander casing components
via remachining, steps such as
solution-annealing, shaft sub-arc
welding, and at-speed balancing of
the rotor were also implemented to
enhance the reliability for the
overall machine. The customer
was able to obtain all of these
services within the Hickham
organization.
HII’s field personnel were
called upon again, once the
machine was back in Oklahoma.
The installation was successful, and
upon placing the expander into
service, the customer related that
they were surprised to find that they
were now able to generate in
excess of 21MW from a machine
that was rated for 20MW. Further,
they stated that they had never had
any of their similar units run as well
as this unit. All of the vibration
levels at full load were under
0.0004 mils.
A letter of appreciation for all
Hickham personnel was received
from the plant manager for their
efforts.
-Dave Dixon, Hickham Industries

ELBAR's Extended
Coating Capabilities
Elbar has offered diffusion and
compressor coatings for more than
25 years. As of January 1, 2001,
thermal spray activities, as well as
pre & post cleaning activities of the
Interturbine Coating Center (ITC)
were integrated into the Elbar
organization. This organizational
change makes ELBAR more
flexible and competitive in this
rapidly growing business. The
integration of the ITC thermal spray
processes: Air Plasma Spraying
[(APS), 2 units] and Low Pressure
Plasma Spraying [(LPPS), 1 unit],
now completes ELBAR’s coating
capabilities. To add to their
flexibility, ELBAR also recently
installed a HVOF unit.
The EB-PVD activities remain
at ITC and will continue under the
new name Sulzer Metco Coatings
BV. Sulzer Metco has thermal
spray activities in Wohlen,
Switzerland and Salzgitter,
Germany.
Detail of Processes
Thermal spray is an industrial
coating process consisting of a
heat source and a material
feedstock, either in powder or wire
form, that results in a surface-
modifying coating. Applications
include protection from wear, high
temperatures, chemical attack, and
environmentally friendly use for
corrosion protection in
Shotpeening of LPPS coated
blades
Elcoat 37, chromium-alumide
diffusion coating
infrastructure maintenance component by exposure to a
engineering. ELBAR currently uses gaseous or powdery medium.
three different kinds of thermal Diffusion coatings provide
spray technologies: superior oxidation, corrosion and
! Low Pressure Plasma erosion resistance for applications
Spraying (LPPS) as internal cavity coating and are
! Atmospheric Plasma widely used as standard oxidation
Spraying (APS) protection for external surfaces.
Further superior properties are
achieved by modified coating
versions, using platinum or other
noble metal as alloying elements.
Pre & Post Treatments
The pre & post treatment steps
consist of a variety of cleaning,
peening, blasting, heat treatment,
and measurement tasks.
-Peter van Neerven, Elbar
LPPS Equipment
! High Velocity Oxy Fuel
Spraying (HVOF)
Diffusion Coating
Diffusion coating is a process
in which a base metal or alloy
component is either coated with
another metal or alloy and is
heated to a process specific
temperature within a closed
environment. The coating is then
diffused into the surface of the
Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 3
 PT Hickham Indonesia
Gas Turbine Overhaul
PT Hickham Indonesia (PTHI)
received an order to overhaul and
repair a very large gas turbine rotor
at its workshop in Purwakarta West
Java, Indonesia. This is the second
time that PTHI has been successful
in winning a competitive bid to
perform work on one of the massive
55-ton, 132 MW rotors.
The units operate in utility
service on the Indonesian island of
Sumatra, approximately 1500 km
(950 miles) from the shop. The
rotor will be disassembled at the
site and loaded into four
customized shipping containers for
the three-day journey by sea. The
unit must be shipped, inspected,
repaired and returned to site in only
28 days!
Once the rotor is received, it
will undergo complete inspection
including ultrasonic testing of the
massive 10 m long centerline tie-
bolt along with eddy current
inspection of the turbine disk fir
trees.
The centerline tie-bolt has a
series of fit areas along the shaft
that are used to dampen transient
vibrations when the unit is starting
up or shutting down. Over time,
these fit areas become fretted and
worn. Historically, the solution has
been to grind the fit areas
undersize and manufacture new
friction damper sleeves called
damping cones. This process has
4 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001
its limitations, since the number of approximately 2 m (6.5 ft) long.
times and amount that the shaft can Each of the disks have Hirth
be ground down is strictly couplings ground on the faces that
controlled. must be inspected for contact and
For this job, PTHI has repaired, if required. Finally, the unit
proposed a unique solution utilizing will be fitted with X-Y proximity
our in-house HVOF coating system probes to supplement the existing
that will keep the shaft at the velocity transducers.
By performing this work, PTHI
has saved the customer both time
and money over prior repairs that
required export to another country.
PTHI is the only rotating equipment
repair facility in Indonesia and only
one of two in the entire Southeast
Asian region that can handle units
of this size and weight.
-Peter Alexander,
PT Hickham Indonesia
Disassembled rotor
original dimensions, cancel the
necessity to replace the damping
cones, act as a deterrent to prevent
fretting, and maintain the very tight
schedule.
Handling the parts safely and
efficiently requires the use of
specially constructed turning,
positioning and lifting fixtures. The
rotor is made up of 20 disks with an
average diameter of about 1.5 m
(+/-5.5 ft) and a hollow shaft section
of the same diameter but
Gas turbine rotor and diaphragm
during repair process

Sulzer Repco Turnkey Overhaul

on an Axial Compressor Train

Taking advantage of shared STZ, the project was not only

knowledge within the Sulzer concluded successfully, but in fact
organization proved a benefit to took just two months to complete.
Sulzer Repco and its client during a The customer expressed high
job in 1998. appreciation of the reduced
Sulzer Repco initially quoted to overhaul time, the quality of work,
perform the onsite turnaround on and the flexibility demonstrated.
an axial compressor train. The
turnaround (overhaul) was to be -Joris Ringelberg, Sulzer Repco
performed on an around-the-clock
basis. Axial compressor with
While Sulzer Repco would be steam turbine during the
responsible for the total project assembly phase
including overhauling the steam
turbine, insulation, scaffolding,
instrumentation, auxiliaries, piping,
Sulzer Turbo Zurich (STZ) and
Ravensburg (STR) were asked to
assist with the overhaul of the axial
compressor.
The compressor is a critical
element in the customer’s steel
making process. Thus, previous
overhauls had been conducted
using in-house maintenance
personnel and technical direction
supplied by STZ. This overhaul
would be different; Sulzer Repco
Sales Engineers convinced the
client that a turnkey project with an
outside source could save up to 2
months in the turnaround period.
The argument for change
succeeded and the work continued.
The previous overhauls had
taken 4 to 6 months, but with joint
cooperation from Sulzer Repco and

Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 5

 Geographical
Responsibilities
Providing a comprehensive
approach to servicing a world
market is always challenging.
Achieving superior results and
excellent responsiveness has been
met by working on a concept of
geographic responsibility. STS has
designated each of its companies
Constantly in touch with all our customers around the world.
Brian McKenzie
President
Hickham Industries
6 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001
to oversee areas of the globe specialized services. In this
which fall into natural trading manner, STS is positioned to
routes. Regardless of who calls, a overcome many obstacles in the
customer will be channeled to the refurbishment of all critical
STS business unit for unmatched equipment.
responsiveness. Each unit
operates independently yet may be
dependent on one another for
STS Entity Leaders
Parviz Tavakolly Berend von Bon Hans W. Strickler
President General Manager President
Elbar Sulzer Repco PT Hickham Indonesia
 Compressor and steam turbine rotors
undergoing inspection

North America: Northeast Asia:

Hickham Industries Elbar

TM

INC.

Southeast Asia:
PT Hickham Indonesia
and Elbar
Elbar &
Sulzer Repco
Hickham Industries PT

INDONESIA

PT Hickham Indonesia

Australia:
Hickham Industries
South America:
Hickham Industries TM

INC.

TM
Europe, Africa,
Middle East,
INC.

Central Asia:
Elbar and
Sulzer Repco

Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 7


50 MW
Steam Turbine Repair
Hickham Industries, Inc.
recently secured a $3.5 million
contract with a copper company to
completely rebuild and re-
commission a 50 MW steam
turbine generator for the company's
power plant in Utah. A new Bently
Nevada monitoring system and a
new OEM turbine controls package
will also be installed during the
turbine rebuild.
Turbine Generator unit No.1 at
the Utah Company's power plant
suffered severe damage when the
turbine rotor lost thrust and
migrated nearly half an inch toward
the generator end of the turbine.
This situation damaged the rotor,
diaphragms, bearings and seals.
Though the turbine had been
plagued with a number of
HP and LP turbine being balanced at
operational speed (3 bearing).
8 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001
problems since 1982, this was by
far the worst case in the history of
this turbine.
Upon receipt of the contract to
repair the turbine, HII dispatched a
diagnostic team to the job site for
an investigation into the root cause
of the failure. Supervised by John
East, HII’s Technical Services
Department determined the root
cause of the failure and drafted the
specifications for a new turbine
monitoring system, which when
properly implemented, will shut the
unit down prior to any damage
occurring.
The H.P. rotor is being weld
repaired via HII's submerged-arc
process with a recently developed
“narrow groove” welding process.
After all weld repairs are
completed, seventeen rows of
new blades will be installed in
the rotors. Upon completion
of the H.P. and L.P. rotor
repairs, the rotors will be
coupled together and
balanced in HII's vacuum
balance bunker in a three
bearing configuration.
All diaphragms
manufactured with cast steel
inner and outer webs are
being weld repaired and
machined. The larger cast
iron diaphragms are being
fitted with steel inserts
designed to add strength. All
Example of a fully-welded
and inserted steam turbine
diaphragm during the
machining process
Example of a steam turbine
disc reconstruction
diaphragms will be equipped with
new labyrinth seals. The thrust
bearing will be upgraded to a low
profile “self leveling” type. This will
more than double the bearing's
load carrying capacity.
With the assistance of the
Technical Services Department,
HII's Field Service Division will
complete the turbine rebuild onsite.
During start-up, HII will spend
approximately seven days
monitoring case thermal growth
and the overall performance of the
unit.
The entire project is being
completed on an emergency basis.
The target commercial operation
date is set for the middle of April,
2001.
-Warren Holmes,
Hickham Industries

Repair of Gas
Turbine Components
No man-made object is perfect,
so the repair of equipment, parts,
and components is as old as
mankind itself.
Gas turbine parts, which are
especially highly-stessed and
valuable, are interesting objects to
repair when damaged.
Commercially, however, repair is
not as interesting to Original
Equipment Manufacturers as it is to
equipment owners. Therefore, most
knowledgeable repair companies
are independent, and have to
conduct independent engineering
and development, e.g. they have to
work according to ISO 9001
standards.
Approximately two years ago,
Elbar was requested by several
customers to design and develop a
repair and life-extension program
for the combustor assembly of a
specific type of gas turbine. The
combustion of the gas turbine is a
modern, low NOx-type, natural gas
fired design. The component is
produced as a welded assembly of
a carbon steel support ring,
austenitic stainless steel (AISI 300
series) burners and a body made
of nickel base alloy.
Combustion vibration can
produce high-cycle fatigue cracking
in otherwise sound material.
Damages of this type can usually
be repaired. It is important,
however, to remove or reduce the
Combustion section
High cycle fatigue cracking
combustion problems that are the
root-cause of this failure. The repair
of this component must restore
base material properties and
dimensional integrity. Since the
time between overhauls of this
Uncoated and bulged side
walls before repair
component is rather low (10
thousand hours on average), some
modifications to extend lifetime of
this component are carried out
during the repair cycle as well.
For the repair, the assembly is
sectioned into various modules or
parts, such as the inner liner, the
burner support section and the
Zirconia type thermal
barrier coating
outer liner. Extensive repair and
replacement is carried out to
restore structural integrity and part
reliability. All damaged material is
replaced with new sub-
components, made from a higher
temperature nickel-base alloy.
Before reassembling the sections
into an integral assembly, the inner
walls are coated with a zirconium-
based thermal barrier coating.
Operating experience shows that
this repair and modification doubles
the lifetime of this component.
Currently, Elbar is the only
authorized repair source for this
costly and complex part.
-Parviz Tavakolly,
President of Elbar
Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 9
 Industrial gas turbine rotor
overhaul

News & People

Peter A. Blok joined the STS team at
the beginning of February of this year.
Peter was born in Rotterdam, The
Netherlands, in 1962. He started his
working career as a freelance E&I
technician and in 1985 started working
with ConPackSys as an instrument
designer and later as an instrument
engineer.
In 1998 he moved to Sulzer
Netherlands as a Project Engineer and
later as a Project Manager.
Today he is located at Sulzer Repco
in the position of Contract Manager. He is
responsible for setting up new
Operations & Maintenance contracts and
the development and support of the
current contracts for STS.
Peter lives in Etten-Leur, near Breda,
in The Netherlands, with his wife and
son. His favorite hobby is being a water
polo referee for the Dutch Premier
League. He also occasionally likes to
play a game of squash and tennis.

Launching a new advertising campaign

STS launched a new advertising campaign, showing the combined global strength of our four entities to our
customers. An example of it can be found on the last page of this newsletter.

Sulzer Turbomachinery Services: Core in the Sulzer Portfolio

With the creation of the new business unit, comprising of the independent rotating equipment service
companies and with the acquisition of Elbar, Sulzer has shown its commitment to the independent service
provision to customers.

Divestiture of Sulzer Turbo

At the end of last year, Sulzer Turbo, the turbocompressor original equipment manufacturing business unit of
Sulzer, was sold to MAN Turbomaschinen AG, GHH BORSIG, best known under the name MAN GHH BORSIG
or MGB, a unit of the MAN group in Germany.

Portfolio of Sulzer Industries

In a press conference held in March 2001, CEO Fred Kindle announced that the portfolio for Sulzer Industries
will be comprised of four core business units: Sulzer Turbomachinery Services, Sulzer Metco, Sulzer
Chemtech, and Sulzer Pumps. These units together with Sulzer Hexis (a new venture unit) all have aggressive
targets for future expansion.

Record financial results of Sulzer Industries

The group operating income for 2000 has increased 97% compared with 1999.

10 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001


Integration of New Entity
First workshop at Elbar,
November 1 - 6, 2000
The Sulzer acquisition of Elbar
B.V. in The Netherlands became
effective on November 1st, 2000.
The excitement was high because
all parties realized the great
potential the STS team has in the
global marketplace. The existing
Sulzer Turbomachinery Services
organization, consisting of Hickham
Industries Inc., Sulzer Repco, and
PT Hickham Indonesia, has a
product portfolio, market approach
and technology base largely
complementary with the acquired
Elbar entity. To build the team and
create a common understanding on
where we want to go as a group,
an integration workshop with the
management teams of all four
entities were called together on
November 1st.
With the integration of Elbar,
STS adopted the TGIS slogan,
which is the acronym for “Teaming
up to build a Global Independent
Service force”. Speed in accepting
changes, flexibility in working
together and team spirit were such
strong characteristics of all people
and entities that the process
quickly showed the benefits of a
coordinated approach to the
market.
Comprehensive workshop
tours at Elbar were organized to
familiarize the attendees with
Management team of Sulzer
Turbomachinery Services
Elbar’s capabilities and facilities. At companies and their processes and
the end of the workshop, task technologies.
forces were set up dealing with During the first day of the
people transfers, technology second workshop, Hickham
transfers, mutual learning and Industries offered an extended
market approaches. Our goals facility tour especially allowing the
were to complete the integration participants of ELBAR to become
process in a fast and efficient familiar with Hickham’s capabilities
manner, resulting in benefits for
the most important people: our
customers.
On the last day of the
workshop, the CEO of Sulzer
Industries, Mr. Fred Kindle, paid
a visit to Elbar and welcomed
the employees of Elbar to
Sulzer. Mr. Kindle took the
opportunity to present Sulzer’s
new Strategy and answered
questions from our new co-
workers.
Integration meeting during the second
workshop in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Second workshop at Hickham
Industries, La Porte &
Fredericksburg, Texas February and technologies. Following this
5 – 9, 2001 tour, many bilateral discussions
During the first and second took place in order to obtain an in-
workshops, the task forces depth understanding of processes
exchanged information about and cultures.
technology, development, I would like to thank all
manufacturing, marketing and participants for their strong
sales, in order to find out where the contributions and look forward to
four entities have overlaps, the next steps in the exciting
synergies, and where we can learn integration process.
from each other. In certain areas,
key task force members paid visits -Hugo Herde,
to other facilities in order to Senior Consultant and
become acquainted with the other Integration Manager
Volume 1, 2001 Turbo Talk 11
 Announcing an By sharing
expansion of global proportions. resources and technology
Sulzer Industries has acquired Elbar BV, a and through a blending of skills
leading turbine repair / surface materials tempered by experience, Sulzer
technology facility, based in Lomm, The Turbomachinery Services offers superior
Netherlands. With this acquisition, Elbar joins results, unmatched responsiveness and the
Hickham Industries, PT Hickham Indonesia, and greatest flexibility to our clients. We are
Sulzer Repco to form Sulzer Turbomachinery pleased to respond to the industries’ need for
Services - a truly global force in rotating equipment one worldwide source of reliable turbomachinery
repair services. services.
Sulzer For more information
Turbomachinery on how Sulzer
Services provides Turbomachinery
the power Services can expand
generation, your opportunities,
petrochemical, give us a call or visit
refining, pipeline, oil Sulzer
& gas, and other Turbomachinery
specialized process Services at
industries with the www.sulzerSTS.com,
most complete and learn how we
turbomachinery can help reduce your
repair and equipment
maintenance maintenance costs
organization in the and grow your
world. bottom line.

Turbomachinery Services
Hickham Industries, Inc. Elbar B.V. Sulzer Repco B.V. PT. Hickham Indonesia
11518 Old LaPorte Rd. Spikweien 36 Moezelweg 190 Kawasan Industri Kota Bukit Indah
LaPorte, Tx 77571 5943 AD Lomm NL-3198 LS Europoort Rt Blok A II, Kav. 1C - 1D
USA The Netherlands Harbournumber 5615 Purwakarta 41181, Indonesia

Phone: (713)-567-2700 Phone: +31(77) 4738666 Phone: +31 (181) 282 000 Phone: +62 (264) 351 920
Toll free: 1-800-324-6540 Fax: +31 (77) 4732785 Fax: +31 (181) 282 002 Fax: +62 (264) 351 143
Email: sales@hickham.com Email: mail@elbar.com Email: info@repco.nl Email: pthickham@sulzer.com

TM
PT

INC.
INDONESIA

www.hickham.com www.elbar.nl www.repco.nl www.pthickham.com

12 Turbo Talk Volume 1, 2001