Sulzer Technical Review 1 / 2015
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Sulzer Technical Review 1/2015 In Motion Trains, fluids, and other things we move Sulzer Technical Review 1/2015

“Dynamics is our profession.” Dear Technology Fans, Customers, and Partners, Aristotle’s statement that “life is movement” is more relevant today than ever. Everything is in motion in our world: whether it be raw materials, produced goods, means of transport, data, or money. However, understanding and mastering complex movements is a tricky business. Take, for example, the traffic flows in major cities. In a metropolis such as Melbourne, rail transport alone has to cope with 230 million passengers a year. Sulzer’s local service centers ensure smooth operation—not only through the...

Pumps for the Booming FPSO Sector Solutions for floating oil production The Readers Have the Floor Keeping Melbourne Moving Maintenance and improvement of the rail network “Our Team is Keen on Keeping Things Moving.” Interview with Kenneth MacKenzie, Rotating Equipment Services A Tiny Creature Holds the Speed Record The fastest mechanism in nature Results of the reader survey Cyclonic separators for the oil and gas industry New Approaches for Simulating Complex Flows Simulation of pumps and mixers with the Lattice-Boltzmann method Sulzer Technical Review 1/2015

Keeping Melbourne Moving Melbourne is the second most populous city in Australia and has a rail network of superlatives. Sulzer’s service center in Melbourne currently maintains a fleet of more than 2500 traction motors and motor/alternator sets. But Sulzer’s offering goes even beyond electrical repairs and upgrades of rotating machines. When Melbourne needed new impedance bonds for an improvement of its rail network infrastructure, the Sulzer team took up the challenge. Sulzer Technical Review 1/2015

What is an impedance bond? Most railroads use track circuits to determine the location of trains. Tracks are divided into insulated blocks that have separate electric circuits (AC current). If a train is present, the wheels connect two tracks and short out the circuit. Impedance bonds are used to connect the insulated tracks in order to allow the passage of DC traction current but not the AC signal used for locating purposes. Electrical impedance is the frequencydependent measure of the voltage-to-current ratio that determines how much AC and DC current can flow for a given voltage. AC...

The new Sulzer impedance bond has an additional multiturn winding that is resonated at 50Hz by an adjustable capacitor. This capacitor is housed either within the bond or in a nearby trackside shelter. The resonating bond achieves the same impedance with fewer winding turns. In fact, Sulzer even achieved impedance that is ca. three times greater than that of a non-resonated bond. As the winding’s length and resistance are reduced, the bond can carry considerably higher traction current without overheating. earlier trams. Melbourne Service Center has been servicing and repairing traction...

Reliable and robust redesign Once the engineers understood the root cause of the failures, the redesign was straightforward. At the same time, the goal was to set a new standard of reliability. Sulzer started by improving the design of the steel housing. The redesign allows for more air circulation with the ability to ventilate the heat generated by the bond whilst minimizing the possibility of water ingress from inclement weather. Next, the team performed a complete review of the raw materials used in the bond assembly and decided that all of the raw materials being used on the original...

“Our Team is Keen on Keeping Things Moving.” Kenneth MacKenzie is president of Rotating Equipment Services in Asia-Pacific. He and his team are proud of keeping things moving—not only by ensuring that machines run smoothly in the transportation segment but also by raising Sulzer’s service network to a new level. Sulzer Technical Review 1/2015

What role does the transportation sector play in your region? A high percentage of our business in Asia-Pacific is electromechanical service with a strong focus on transportation. In this respect, the Asian region differs from the other regions of the world, where the level of mechanical (pump and turbo) work is higher. The transportation sector includes a range of segments—rail and marine but also machinery used in mining. We have had great success in Australia in the maintenance of rail networks. Building on this success, we opened a new service center in Kunshan, China, which targeted...

And sometimes your job is not only repairing parts but also manufacturing new ones… Yes, customers increasingly ask us to manufacture new parts. This is a strong and growing element of our business. An extraordinary example is one of our projects in Melbourne, which you can read about in this Sulzer Technical Review as well (on page 4). We are already in charge of maintaining the traction motors for the rail network. In 2014, the customer needed to improve the rail network infrastructure. Our engineers accepted this challenge and developed improved impedance bonds for the rail tracks. They...

A Tiny Creature Holds the Speed Record A tiny ant performs the fastest movement in the animal kingdom. Speed has always been the trump in the existential world of eat and be eaten. However, the performance of the trap-jaw ant outshines all other animal records. We may admire the sprint of the cheetah, the dive of the falcon, and the flashing speed of the swordfish: but these feats pale in comparison to those of some players in the insect world. If a cockroach registers a threatening vibration, it will disappear into thin air within 40 milliseconds. A flea only needs a mere millisecond to...

Today, many oil fields are nearing the end of their reserves of easily recoverable hydrocarbons. Mature oil fields are experiencing an increase in the production of reservoir water and solids (sand, etc.) that have to be separated from oil and gas. The revamp of existing platforms is difficult because the installation of additional separation vessels is expensive and often limited because of space constraints. Exchange of vessel internals is not always possible or sufficient. That is why in the past decade the use of inline separation equipment has become more and more popular. With compact...