Damage to an HS pinion tooth:
How TCM^® helped the company save $384,000 in maintenance costs
 

In 2016, a Canadian energy company acquired an older windfarm with Siemens tur­bines, which had the TCM^® solution installed. At first, the company had no idea how vital TCM^® would be for their maintenance costs and what it could mean for the bottom line. Soon after the acquisition, the TCM^® solution proved its value.

Detecting critical faults
Days after the company acquired the wind farm, an alarm went off, and TCM^® confirmed an abnormal vibration measurement that exceeded the criteria rated as critical. TCM^® had identified a cracked HS pinion tooth, and because the fault was caught early, it could be repaired and replaced up tower with no collateral damage.

KK Wind Solutions received an email from the customer with pictures of the fault: “I thought you would like to see what our TCM^® solution caught this month - an HS pinion tooth. It’s repaired already, up tower replacement, and no collateral damage”.

The company believed it would have led to a catastrophic failure had it not been caught in time by TCM^®.  If left undetected, the HS pinion tooth could have damaged other teeth or damaged the gearbox, a failure that would have cost the company approximately $420,000.

The failure was caught in an early stage. Therefore, it was possible to repair and replace up tower and exchange the shaft where the pinion was located, without any collateral damage, and with the repair cost of $36,000. TCM^® saved the company a total of $384,000.

How can TCM^® help?
TCM^® provides critical information on turbine health, which allow us to proactively budget and execute planned work to reduce downtime, lost production, and lost revenue.