FARO Laser Tracker Applications, Thinking Outside the Box!

摘要

During the Planning and Scheduling process of our Unit 3 Turbine Upgrade Project at RockyrnMountain Pumped Storage facility we were tasked with finding ways to trim the schedule. Manyrnideas were shared and some even implemented. Our Senior Engineer had been looking at arnsystem that was gaining notoriety in the metrology industry for attaining measurements withrnphenomenal precision using laser technology. This instrument could be used to perform criticalrnmeasurements for "As Found" and "As Left" conditions pertaining to disassembly andrnreassembly of our pumped storage turbine and generator. The sales representative from FAROrnwas contacted and a demonstration was scheduled. During the demonstration our supervisors andrnengineers were amazed with the equipment and the possible uses. The next hurdle wasrnconvincing the Vice President of Power Operations that this tool could possibly save us weeksrnand provide more precise measurements, ultimately ensuring the reassembled unit could be heldrnwithin tighter tolerances. The FARO Laser Tracker was purchased and three associates wererntrained in its use. Immediately the Project Manager submitted a list of critical hold points duringrnthe disassembly for attaining specific measurements. These "As Found" measurements would berncritical during the field-machining and reassembly of the pump/turbine and motor/generator.rnMost of these measurements were attained in one shift, as opposed to taking days using thernconventional methods. Our Project Manager began to task us with other measurements thatrnseemed unattainable, but the Laser Tracker Techs accepted each challenge.rnChallenge 1) Measure the wicket gate bores to check for proper alignment andrnconcentricity to determine if line boring is required.rnMeasurement of Wicket Gate bore alignment is typically a very time consuming process. Therncommonly used methods typically require a significant amount of set up time at each wicketrngate. Since we would need to measure a total of twenty gates with three bores each, managementrnand engineering personnel at Rocky Mountain realized a great potential for time savings if thesernmeasurements could be expedited. We were able to take advantage of these savings using ourrnlaser tracker and a little ingenuity.rnChallenge 2) Utilize the FARO Tracker to reverse engineer our thrustrnbearing oil cooler tube sheet.rnA CAD drawing would be created and used as the template for fabrication of new cooler tubernsheets and ultimately the construction of two spare thrust bearing coolers. As before, wernaggressively accepted this challenge even with the limited experience we had with this machine.rnWe started using many of the concepts we had previous experience with. This task reallyrnchallenged us to use many of the features available in this high tech tool.rnThese are just two of the challenges that I've shared with you in this abstract. There are manyrnothers that we plan to share with the professionals attending HydroVision in 2008. We havernfound the FARO Laser Tracker to be a very powerful tool. It has many applications as long asrnyou have an Imagination and Think Outside the Box.