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August, 1949
Richardsons Westgarth developments
It is now some 45 years since the manufacture of steam turbines commenced at Middleton, a small village located between Hartlepool and West Hartlepool. In the intervening period great advances have taken place in the size and design of these units ; the firm of Richardsons Westgarth & Co. Ltd has had the benefit of reciprocal working with the renowned Swiss company of Brown Boveri and also that of close association with marine engineering works in the district. The manufacture of alternators, again in conjunction with Brown Boveri, has been undertaken and, relatively recently, the production of water-tube boilers of the Foster-Wheeler design has been added to the earlier output of Scotch cylindrical boilers. In addition, the firm builds feed heating, deaerating and condensing equipments up to very large sizes for power stations using its own and other manufacturers' turbines, so that it is now in the position to furnish complete power plants "from the boiler to the alternator terminals." This was exemplified by the production of transportable steam-turbine units of 2,500 kW capacity, and supplied to the Ministry of Supply.
A recent visit to the Richardsons Westgarth works enabled us to appreciate the progress achieved in the last few years, and we were not surprised to learn that the resources of the firm are being heavily drawn upon for new plant required by the B.E.A.; indeed, we were informed that turbine orders at present total over 500-MW, or more than the whole amount of new plant commissioned by all makers in 1948. A number of standard 30-MW sets and three 52.5-MW turbo-alternators are in production, but perhaps the greatest interest attaches to a 60-MW unit for Edinburgh. This has been designed as a two-spindle series turbine, with two 30-MW alternators, both at 3,000 r.p.m., in order to get it into the space formerly occupied by a single 12,500-kW. set. It has, moreover, been arranged to take steam at 1,350 lb. per sq. in., 9500 F., and to exhaust into a single-shell condenser at 29.1 in. Hg. with a barometer of 30 in. The very large volume of the exhaust steam has called for quadruple low-pressure blading, ingeniously arranged as indicated in the accompanying diagram. The latter also shows the general lines of the l.p. spindle construction, incorporating unpierced wheels welded together; equally ingenious methods are applied to the rotor construction of large alternators, which are built up and welded in such a way that the central part is always in tension and the peripheral parts always in compression so that reversals of stress are eliminated. A great many other excellent points of design are incorporated to deal with the temperatures involved and other problems of such big sets, but we must content ourselves by mentioning only the special means employed to drain the exhaust stage blading; this was developed by the designer at Richardsons and has, we understand, been adopted as standard by Brown Boveri. It is, of course, particularly applicable for high vacua exhausts and high blade speeds, in order to avoid erosion effects.
Apart from large turbo-alternators for public electricity generating stations, this firm has also always taken special interest in smaller units for industrial establishments. It has long experience with back-pressure, pass-out and mixed pressure turbines, with turbine-type blowers and air compressors and with all the associated problems. For instance, two condensing turbo-alternators installed at Seaton in 1912 to take steam at the remarkable pressure of below 1 lb. per sq. in. gauge from certain jacketed furnaces, are still in regular commission, as are other equally early back-pressure units. At present there are a number of hot-blast blowers going through the shops and several pass-out and back-pressure turbo-alternator units (for I.C.I.) ; most of these are designed to take superheated steam at 600 lb. per sq. in., thus reflecting the trend in private plants towards higher steam conditions. The industrial turbines in hand total nearly 100 MW. Foster-Wheeler boilers, with chain-grate stokers, balanced draught and regenerative air heaters, are also in progress for an I.C.I. plant, as well as other water-tube units for land installations; the total land boilers in commission or under construction aggregate over 1,000,000 lb. per hr. capacity.
Recent additions to manufacturing facilities include a new winding shop; a fitters' shop adjacent to the turbine shop; a newly-tooled pattern-making shop and sundry new machine tools in all departments. The works is wholly electrically driven, chiefly with individual drives, and relies upon the public mains. Space heating is principally by Tangye air heaters, coke fired. Vitreous enamelled fittings are mainly used for artificial illumination, and natural lighting is being restored by re-glazing roofs, some with glass and others with Perspex inserts. There is, of course, a range of test boilers, which now include a Foster-Wheeler unit used during the war as a training centre for young marine engineers who had previously had experience only with shell boilers.
Drawings and Photographs accompanying the article
Article reproduced from a copy of the magazine held at National Mining Museum Scotland, Newtongrange, Midlothian.
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