Farewell, Pasadena Turbine Rotor

Pasadena recently bid farewell to one of its GE 7FA turbine rotors on January 31st  of this year. The rotor was given to the APM SS Division by GE in early 2011 to use for training purposes. Over the years, it has served its time as a truly effective training tool, assisting in the training process for many APM SS Blade Technicians on multiple work scopes including removal and installation of buckets for F class gas turbines, biscuit mod, blend polish and peen, blade blending, erosion blending and flapper peening. The training mock-up in Pasadena is indicative of performing these processes at a site where the rotor is out of the machine and on rollers. 

Knowing that internal parts of the training rotor we had was needed to repair a flooded power plant rotor in the Northeast (Coyote), the APM SS Division returned the rotor back to the GE Houston Service Center and replaced our training mock-up with a spare rotor from the Pasadena APM yard. The lead guys involved in the move were APM Personnel, Steven Putman, John Syphrett, Robert Thibodeaux and Kendall Tennyson. For the day of the move, the team was unable to find a crane available for rent to lift a 100,000 lb. rotor in the time frame that they needed to complete the transfer, so the team had to use two cranes, a 100 ton truck crane and a 120 ton truck crane. This meant that the need for high attention to detail and dedicated coordination and cooperation was crucial on this job. Our guys handled it with no problems and completed a first-class rotor change out and rigging job! All tasks were performed safely, professionally and without a single incident. Way to execute with ZERO-INCIDENT safety culture, guys!

APM Specialty Services is especially proud of all of the top-notch training they provide for the GAS On-Site Repair, and they are very appreciative to GE for allowing them to use the rotor for their training classes.