OCR Text |
Show Power Unit at Coulee Tops All Largest Turbine in World To Rest in Pit Six Stories Deep. GRAND COULEE, WASH. The world's greatest turbine-driven generator gen-erator will go into service about August Au-gust 1 at man's largest structure. Grand Coulee Dam. according to reclamation bureau engineers. ; The date was set. tentatively, however, how-ever, because of the difficulty in getting get-ting machinery with the national defense de-fense priority on orders. The 525-ton rotor assembly of the generator, designed to produce 108,-000 108,-000 kilowatts, has been assembled in a pit six stories deep. It must be lifted out by two 350-ton traveling cranes, swung over to another pit and lowered again for final assembly. assem-bly. First of 18 Generators. The 32-foot circular rings of iron plates and "poles," the first of 18 giant generators to supply the Pacific Pa-cific Northwest, will be placed on "sole" or foundation plates that lie around the edge of the turbine pit. The stator, 160-ton ring of coils within which the rotor revolves, will be carried by the cranes to its position posi-tion at the edge of the pit, and will then be lifted inside of what is known as the thrust bearing bracket. This spider-like bracket, designed to prevent pre-vent distortion of the stator's shape, is a rigid frame from which the 800 tons of moving parts in the generator genera-tor will be suspended. The bracket and stator, with a combined weight of 474 tons, will be lifted into position by an iron framework frame-work attached to the cranes' four pulleys. Clearance Figured Closely. .j. With a clearance of only 15-16ths of an inch, the rotor will move at a speed of two and a quarter miles a minute inside the stator. At the Newport News Shipbuilding Shipbuild-ing & Drydock company builders of half the American fleet engineers have almost finished installing the 150,000 horsepower turbine unit of the generator. It has been aligned to the thousandth of an inch, as has the whole generator, in order to prevent vibration that could easily tear the entire machine to pieces. Engineers anticipate the generator genera-tor will undergo its first test runs some time in July. |