The good work of an engineer is often buried underneath the cabinet covers. When it comes to Direct Turbine Control System repairs how different companies approach repairs differently is hard to detect at first glance. A case in point is the RKPS that came to our lab recently. The unit was received as an emergency repair order from a plant. The unit was purchased from by the plant as a refurbished RKPS from and XYZ company and was kept as a standby unit. When the unit was pulled from storage for use in the field, it failed. We understand the urgency of the plant manager’s perspective. As anyone who has managed power plants know, RKPS is the critical power supply unit for the Speedtronic MK VI platform.
Our engineers dismantled the unit and the following pictures will tell the story :
Glass fuses instead of ceramic fuses. OEM recommends ceramic fuse Substandard Non-industrial capacitors instead of hermetically sealed industrial capacitors. It will be only a matter of time before these capacitors will start leaking and take down the whole unit with it.
Found that the thermal compound is dry, maybe while refurbishing they might use some general-purpose compound, or they never changed it. The thermal compound is a vital component that is meant to transfer the unit’s heat to the heat sink. It is a difficult task to replace the thermal compound as it requires the complete dismantling of all power packs which can only be done by an experienced professional.
Before and after refurbishing pictures are added here for reference. Can you figure out the difference?
Our engineers were on the job right away. Rectified the power output issue, refurbished the unit with industry specs components, and was sent back to the power plant the same day for years of worry-free service. As per the customer, they installed the unit and is working fine.
If you are using an industrial repair service, we recommend the power plant engineers to review the quality of components as well as workmanship. A small compromise in quality may cost you a lot. If you find this useful, pass along this useful info to your colleagues. As a company owned and operated by control system engineers, we stand for quality assurance and establishing standards of operation in the industrial electronic repair sector.