Advanced valves take Vimab around the world
Takhiatash power plant supplies electricity to one third of Uzbekistan
Vimab has recently carried out service missions in both Uzbekistan and Mexico on behalf of IMI Critical Engineering. The company, located in Birmingham, UK, manufactures advanced valves for demanding applications. Vimab has an agreement with the company and services some of their valve types.
The assignments in Uzbekistan and Mexico both involved the servicing of steam converters. A steam converter is used to receive steam at high pressure, reduce the pressure and distribute steam at the right pressure to different systems in a plant. Ludvig Wisell from Vimab in Motala was one of those who were on both missions. ? The job in Uzbekistan was to grind the valve and replace spare parts, as damp steam had caused wear. Once on site, further problems were discovered and fixed," says Ludwig. Combined cycle powerThe Takhiatash plant is powered by two gas turbines totalling 560MW and supplies electricity to one third of Uzbekistan
"It's fun to have jobs that are a little different, says Ludvig Wisell at Vimab in Motala
Careful planning
For a job like this, you really have to plan the task so that you have the right tools. We had many meetings on Teams beforehand," says Ludvig.
On site, you have to be able to solve the task independently and often additional problems arise. For example, we had to do some machining, which we were not prepared for. The power plant is relatively new and was built by Hyundai, which has people on site throughout the warranty period, which runs until 2024.
The staff at the power plant were impressed by our broad knowledge. They themselves were more focused on their own tasks. It's a more hierarchical organisation where everyone does their own thing. But there's a lot of safety thinking and everyone is very careful.
Machining at the La Caridad power plant in Mexico is carried out by Ludvig Wisell from Motala
Hired machine from the USA
The mission in Mexico was a similar job. La Caridad is a 500MW combined cycle power plant in the state of Sonora fuelled by natural gas. Here, too, it was a steam converter that needed servicing.
? Here we had to replace the entire valve seat, we had to cut out the existing seat with a machine that we rented from a place in the US, says Ludwig. ? It is an extensive job. The entire valve is four metres high. The seat was quickly worn out in this application, so we changed from a welded seat to a tensioned seat. This will make it easier to change next time. But this is nothing new for us.
We have cut out seats in Mexico, Växjö, Malmö and Stockholm. In addition to replacing the seat, we also replaced the entire inside diameter of the valve.
? There was a lot of waiting time on site. It was a big audit with 500 contractors on site. Sometimes you had to wait for a crane or other lifting facilities. For jobs like this, you need to know the whole valve and have experience. But jobs like this don't come along every day and it's It's great that there are several of us at Vimab who are trained and can work with jobs that are a little different.