Test
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Performance
& Acceptance Testing -- Hydraulic Turbine and Hydraulic Pump
PE is one of the very few North American service companies with
both the experience and the equipment necessary to perform full
scale turbine performance and acceptance testing in accordance with
IEC 41. All test instrumentation is certified and calibrated to
NIST standards. In the case of Acceptance tests, final reports are
prepared in accordance with all contract or warranty requirements,
while in the case of performance tests, report emphasis is to optimize
Clients' operating regime or to recommend areas where improvements
could be achieved.
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Performance
& Acceptance Testing -- Generator
PE is one of
the very few North American service companies with both the experience
and the equipment necessary to perform full scale turbine performance
and acceptance testing in accordance with IEC 198. All test instrumentation
is certified and calibrated to NIST standards. In the case of Acceptance
tests, final reports are prepared in accordance with all contract
or warranty requirements, while in the case of performance tests,
report emphasis is to optimize Clients' operating regime or to recommend
areas where improvements could be achieved.
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Performance
Testing -- Voltage Regulator
PE has developed specialized techniques and methods to test and evaluate
the performance of generator voltage regulators, with special emphasis
on older, more difficult to service models, such as Amplidynes, Magastats,
Regulex, etc.
Performance is measured
principally in terms of stability and dynamic response. In most
cases, performance testing is followed by realignment and optimization.
Complete dynamic response characteristics are measured.
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Gear
Inspection
PE's expertise in gear inspection and gear metrology is world renowned.
PE team members have vast experience designing and utilizing gear
inspection instrumentation, which allows the development of comprehensive
yet realistic quality and inspection programs and enables Clients
to choose best methods to achieve necessary quality. PE can also
serve as a third party auditor and/or inspector as necessary. In
the case of components which fall short of specified accuracy limits,
PE can correlate inspection data to machine performance to allow
Client to understand and make informed technical and economic decisions
regarding potential manufacturing variances.
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Surface
Inspection and Characterization
PE employs high precision, field transportable, surface profilometry
to measure surface roughness and to fully characterize surface characteristics.
These measurements are invaluable for calculating specific film
thicknesses, bearing load areas, and extent & topography of
damaged surfaces. In the case of super polished components, PE also
has access to non-contact, laboratory grade, profilometers to measure
roughness and topography at the sub micron level.
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Thermal
Testing
PE has a host of temperature measuring instrumentation including
RTD's, thermocouples, non contact infra red probes, connected to
computer data acquistion systems which log and process the data.
PE routinely performs measurements to establish machinery class
according to ANSI C50. In many cases thermal data in correlated
to process fluid temperatures, velocities and flow rates to determine
heat transfer coefficients and efficiency. As required, PE uses
its finite element analysis tools to model thermal heat flow and
temperature distribution through entire machines and then recommends
changes to improve thermal performance as required (see article
for an example).
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Lubrication
Test and Evaluation
PE has among its team members world renowned chemists and tribologists
who can evaluate and appraise lubricant suitability for a given
application, recommend additives packages, and discuss new and unique
formulations and applications. PE has close working relationships
with several laboratories which allows us to perform required analytical
work to diagnose and evaluate lubricants, additives and wear products.
Lubricant evaluation is often an integral part of a systems analysis
or troubleshooting program, and PE has the experience to tie lubricant
phenomena and data to machinery condition and diagnostics.
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Microscopic
Inspection
PE has in house high magnification, tri-ocular, optical microscopes
which allow detailed inspection of component surfaces. High resolution
digital cameras are used to capture salient information in a convenient
format. PE supplements optical inspections with scanning electron
microscopy as required. PE team members have years of experience
analyzing microscopic images to determine failure mechanisms.
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Dimensional
Verification
PE is famous for the quality and precision of its measuring instruments
and techniques. PE can perform or supervise just about any dimensional
measurement, and in fact have developed practical techniques to
solve "insolvable" problems! Please contact us with your
unique machinery problem.
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Optical
Measurements
PE team members specialize in the use of optical instruments to
measure and align all types of rotating machinery. In many cases,
our team members have pushed the envelope in developing new techniques
and applications to increase the precision and accuracy of machinery
alignment and appraisal measurements. Some of these techniques have
been documented in technical papers and articles. See also Optical
Alignment
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Verticality
and Level Checks
PE has developed several extremely efficient (time saving) and accurate
techniques for measuring verticality of large rotating machines.
We also have laser alignment equipment for precise alignment and
coupling of horizontal rotating equipment.
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