When shafts rub

It is undesirable to have a shaft to rub metal to metal with another machine components…but it happens. When it does, the question often asked is “Can the shaft be fixed?” It is easy enough to bring in an service that does field machining to fix the surface of the shaft, but the heat caused by a rub alters the shaft steel much like the heat affected zone that occurs during welding.

This video explains what happens with crystalline structures in steel when exposed to intense heat.

Below is a photo for a part that rubbed. Over 0.1″ has already been machined away and you can see the hard spot that still remains.

 

Installing the Rotating Element

A short animated GIF showing the rotating element of the Size 250 dual circuit fluid drive being installed in the TRI Transmission and Bearing Corp. shop

Technical Note By Dr. Mel, May 2017

Dr. Mel has released a new Tech Note, “Improved Competiveness for Conventional Coal and Gas Fired Power Plants”. This new tech note explores the opportunities to extend the life of traditional power plants. Read more…

Flush Cock Valves

Flush cock valves are used for situations where it is absolutely critical that a valve that can shut off the lube oil flow cannot be operated when the lube oil system is pressurized and in service.

TRI Manufactures flush cock valves for turbine generator lube oil systems. These valves can block or divert oil, but the are specifically designed not be operable while the system is under pressure.

For more information: http://turboresearch.com/products/flush-cock-valves

Fluid Drive Upgrades

TRI has new tilt pad bearing designs for upgrades to the Size 270 Dual Circuit Fluid Drive. These bearings replace fixed bore pressure dam bearings and are essential for vibration control under high torque conditions.

The image below replace the bearing and the bearing housing on the output-outboard end of the fluid drive. It’s a 6 pad bearing with 2 thermocouples in the bottom pad and vibrations probes at 45° off of the vertical center-line.

The image below in the inboard bearing housing. This housing holds the pads for both the input-inboard bearing and the output-inboard bearing.

 

Lift Oil Pocket

A quick video of a lift oil pocket machined on a CNC mill. The pocket is a constant 0.045″ deep along the curved bore.

Geared Fluid Drives

Fluid drive applications that require an output speed that is faster than the input speed can utilize a gear set as a speed increaser.  Theoretically, a gear box can increase the speed  either before or after the fluid drive. However, it is usually better to increase the speed before the fluid drive because the size of the fluid drive parts are dependent on rotational speed at the hydraulic coupling: The faster the impeller, the smaller the parts.

TRI can make fluid drives with internal gears. A fluid drive with internal gears has two main advantages over a gear box external to the fluid drive. Machine trains that use fluid drives with internal gears have a smaller overall footprint then placing a gear box between the driver and the fluid drive, and fluid drives with internal gears eliminates the coupling between the drive and the fluid drive.

Call TRI for more information about fluid drives: (800) 363-8571

SIZE 195 Geared Fluid Drive
Input Speed = 1780, Output Speed = 5780