Wood Group Power, Inc. (WGP) is creating a new center of excellence in East Windsor, Connecticut to greatly enhance the maintenance, repair and overhaul service it offers to operators of industrial gas turbines across the US.
The company is building a new 30,000 sq ft heavy industrial gas turbine rotor overhaul facility, adjacent to its existing gas turbine fuel systems business. It is also relocating two of its existing component repair businesses to an existing 90,000 sq ft building on the same site.
George Gaudette, President of WGP, explained: ‘We are establishing a center of excellence from where we can provide a complete range of maintenance, repair and overhaul services for industrial gas turbine operators in a truly integrated manner. Positioning our rotor overhaul, component repair and fuel system repair operations together in one location will enable us to better serve the industry, and deliver faster, more cost-effective service solutions for a wide range of power plant equipment.’
The new rotor shop, expected to be completed in time for Spring 2003 outages, will offer a full spectrum of overhaul services, covering conversions and modifications, rotor strip, rebuild/assembly, balancing, parts inspection, repair and coating. Technical responsibility for the new rotor shop lies with Paul Tucker, who recently joined WGP from Sermatech, and who has extensive knowledge of, and experience in, rotor repair and overhaul.
The new 90,000 sq ft component repair facility, expected to be operational by Fall 2002, will combine the expertise and resources of two existing WGP businesses: industrial aero-derivative gas turbine component repair specialist, Wood Group Component Repair Inc (WGCR) of Suffield, Connecticut, and the component repair business of Dallas-based Wood Group Heavy Industrial Turbines LP (WGHIT).
A key aspect of the new component repair facility is the synergies it will create for both incumbent companies, giving them access to new technologies and processes. WGHIT will be able to offer its customers a number of in-house applications that were not present in Dallas, for example acid stripping and aluminide coatings. Likewise, WGCR will be able to offer more advanced technology repairs to its customers, through utilisation of WGHIT capabilities such as Laser Powder Welding, robotic HVOF plasma coating, and vacuum heat treatment.
WGHIT’s Dallas facility will continue to operate in tandem with the new Connecticut shops, managing the company’s field service and parts sales activities.
Gaudette continued: ‘From this new center of excellence we will be able to offer the US heavy industrial and aero-derivative gas turbine markets a significantly expanded and more enhanced service, to better satisfy their maintenance requirements. This heralds a major step forward for Wood Group Power, by giving operators a credible, independent alternative source for their outage and maintenance management, and field service requirements.’