REDUCTION OF DOWNTIME IN POWER GENERATION OPERATIONS
WITH SELF-TAPPING PERMANENT THREAD REPAIR TECHNOLOGY
In the power generation industry, repair of damaged substrate threading has traditionally been obtained by the use of coil or mild steel inserts that require labor intensive operations, special tooling, and are limited to installation by machinists. In larger applications such as turbine or gate valves, the options have been limited to field boring /welding/re-bore and tap or custom manufacturing of mild steel inserts which again require the bore/tap/weld method of installation. Both methods of repair are limited in that the substrate repair are no stronger than the OEM tapping, and are subject to the same forces (heat/galling/loss of yield /torque) that created the need for the repair to begin with.
There is now a proven alternative that provides a reduction of 70-80% of labor requirements for this repair and to date is permanent utilizing a thru hardened self tapping insert technology developed by GARD Specialists in conjunction with the EPRI turbine group and numerous power generation companies. As we will show on the following pages, this repair method provides a stronger repair than other methods, making the fastener the consumable/weak link in the repair cycle.