Gas Turbine Maintenance Strategy Review

The review and development of the overall Maintenance Strategy for a piece of rotating equipment, so as to minimise the maintenance costs whilst maximising the machine availability and reliability.

The traditional method for scheduling maintenance intervals has been on a strict hours-run basis, where a machine would be overhauled when it had accumulated a specific number of running hours. However modern Condition Monitoring techniques, in conjunction with a more analytical approach to the operating environment of the equipment, have meant that maintenance can be planned so as to minimise the overall maintenance costs and to maximise equipment availability.

Based upon our long experience and accumulated data, IMS can review the operation of a specific machine and, in conjunction with the customer's operations and maintenance personnel, define a Maintenance Strategy that would be best suited to that particular site.

Customers can access this wealth of experience and Quality methodology with IMS performing a Maintenance Audit on the customer's installations to verify that satisfactory maintenance procedures are being used. This will provide the customer with an overview of assets that could identify any potential problem areas and possible cost savings, and would also help to satisfy the customer's own Quality Assessment procedures.

The factors considered when designing this Gas Turbine Maintenance Strategy include the loading profile of the machine, the quality of the fuel, the general environment of the installation, and the economic effects of unscheduled downtime.