Application Case Studies

CONAX ENHANCES DESIGN ON SENSORS FOR SIEMENS WESTINGHOUSE TURBINE

Industry: Power
Application: Gas Turbine

Customer Requirement:
A customer needed a source for flashback thermocouples on a Siemens Westinghouse W501F gas turbine. Deer Park Energy Center is a cogeneration facility that provides power and steam for a Shell chemical plant. They currently have four turbines with plans to bring two more on line in the future. Each turbine has 16 burner cans with two sensors on each burner can for a total of 32 sensors. They schedule maintenance once or twice per year, but unscheduled outages also occur. Calpine Deer Park had been purchasing the sensors from a local distributor. Although they were not dissatisfied with the quality of the sensors, they were hoping to find a lower cost alternative. The sensor assemblies use Type K sensor elements, with grounded junction and 316SST sheath, and operate at 700°F. Positioning of the sensor within the burner can is critical. If the sensor tip is off position by 1/2 in either direction, a massive error in temperature results.

Conax Design Solution:
Conax was not only able to provide the desired cost savings but also enhanced he design. In talking to Conax, Calpine discovered that they had found a source that actually understood their business and was able to refine the design to meet their needs. The Conax design shortens the sensor length to better fit the turbine. The customer was sufficiently impressed with Conax's expertise and design capability that they have requested a quote on disk cavity thermocouples for the same turbines.