5 Questions – Designing Lubrication Oil Systems for Power Generation Plants

We are fortunate to work with a great team from Baric who provide us with deep expertise in engineered system construction for the Power Generation, Oil and Gas and Industrial markets.   I recently conducted a 5 question interview session with Darren Godsmark, Sales Director.  This interview provides a good overview of how Colfax is challenging OEMs to think about their system designs and consider alternatives in system construction and configuration -

Contact us if you're interested in designing a better system.

Baric is well known as a designer and manufacturer of unique packaged units for the rotating machinery industry. The Power Gen industry, however, primarily uses pre-engineered or “build to print” packages. Can you provide some example of your ability to showcase Baric’s design skills in the Power Gen market?

Yes, there are several examples. In fact, we have a design contract to design a skid package for a particular sized turbine for a major global Power Gen supplier.

One of our best examples, however, was a project in which we provided Lube Oil Systems (LOS) for 50Hz and 60Hz turbo-gen sets. It was essentially a “build to print” contract, but we identified a number of improvements that could be made on the systems, which we relayed to the customer.

We’re quite proud of our ability to add value to a customer’s projects by drawing on experience and know-how.

Was the customer interest in finding out about the improvements?

Absolutely. We were invited to participate in a number of seminars – mini-Kaizens, actually, with their design team.

What was the focus of the seminars?

There were essentially three considerations:

• Review and update the global specifications for the lubrication oil system
• A detailed review of main sub-supplied equipment, such as pumps, motors and control valves
• The physical layout of the lubrication oil system

What were the biggest challenges the seminars presented?

The first two were fairly straightforward as the assembled teams worked through the original global specifications. We discussed each element in detail – from material selections of reservoirs and piping to potential suppliers for the main buy outs. We then created a revised final version based on a combination of best practices, shared field experiences and sub-supplier evaluation.

The real challenge came in the design of the LOS itself. Both the 50Hz and 60Hz Turbo-Gen sets had to have the same physical footprint. Site interface points had to be located in the same places. Multiple Lube Oil Cooler options had to be designed without changing the footprint. This included the remote air cooled heat exchanger, plus a single plate & frame water cooled heat exchanger LOS and a dual (duty and standby) plate & frame water cooled heat exchanger, both mounted on the LOS. Both required European (CE) and North American instrumentation installation, as well as AC and DC motor installation. Working together, the customer’s team and the Baric team were able to solve these issues.

Do you think the exercise was a success?

Most definitely. By achieving the design brief as describe above, it gave the customer the option to provide the LOS as a stock order item, based on local requirements, for any area of the world in which they marketed. But for us, the biggest validation was the number of contracts we received by using this design, supplying machinery in Asia, the Americas and Europe.