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21 October 2004 - Shutdown to repair four severely corroded condenser units at a Western Australia power station was kept to just 24 hours using composites repair technology from Furmanite. The Australian engineering company, which specialises in maximising asset uptime, claim to have created substantial savings.
Traditional removal and replacement of the damaged units would have required several days shutdown as they were partially buried under floor level in a tight access area.
Prolonged shutdown would have resulted in significant disruption to the substantial industrial and domestic customers the power station serves and high cost given that alternative power had to be supplied while the work was undertaken.
The four condenser units, each some 27 inches nominal bore, were suffering from corrosion with some evidence of erosion, due to saltwater content and velocity, causing wall thinning and in one case, extensive through wall defects.
One of the units was to be encased in two tonnes of concrete, and the use of the composites repair allowed this to be done without risk of concrete entering the system. The repairs were engineered using carbon fibre and epoxy resin composite technology against pressures of vacuum to one barg and ambient temperatures of some 45°C.
Given the awkward and tight access below surface level, as little as 90mm clearance, the light-weight and flexible materials aided the speed of the work.
Potential loss of production had shutdown not been minimised could have been in the region of A$500 000 ($367 450).
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