Shen Yuan - a turbine worker

Shen Yuan, the leader of the gas turbine pipeline assembly team and the dispatcher in the auxiliary machinery workshop. For all the years he serves the company, he has made outstanding contribution to the production of gas turbines by his hardwork and efforts in studying technologies as well as his practicability and innovation. His stories are about constantly high self-request and self-discipline, assiduous study of 6B and 9E gas turbine technologies, absorption of advanced technologies from abroad, reform and innovation in production to tackle production and technical difficulties, which has played a key role in leading to breakthroughs of gas turbine products of the company.

Featured with sophisticated structure, great manufacturing difficulty and demanding specifications, a gas turbine pipeline has nearly 30 serried and complicated parts with next to a thousand drawings. After digging into existing technologies, Shen Yuan invented a new method that produces most pipeline sets off site, assembles and welds them in the workshop and installs them on the unit instead of previously installing and welding each pipe on the unit one by one. The new method greatly shortens the production cycle and enhances quality. After discovering that the ovality and finish degree of small-diameter pipelines are the key factors for the sealing of pipeline heads and the inadequate precision of home-made pipe clamp heads is one of the main reasons for poor quality and oil leakage of small-diameter pipelines, he immediately reported to the company and suggested using T-shaped pipes and imported pipe heads, which solved a production challenge that had bothered the company for years. Since the 9E gas turbine is an imported technology, its domestication became the top priority. Shen Yuan led his team to complete the home-made production of the first machine pipeline as well as other key parts such as auxiliary machinery module, valve station and front-end module, which not only made dramatic contributions to the domestication of gas turbines, but also saved considerable foreign exchange for the company.

In 2017 when 6B gas turbines were being manufactured, Shen Yuan spent his weekends in checking and testing the inventories of parts ranging from elbows, pipe fittings and flange to cutting sleeve, bolts and even nuts. Any part that can guarantee quality was used, thus saving considerable cost for the company. When the first 6F.03 gas turbine was assembled, GE sent his representatives to supervise the manufacturing process as per its requirements. However, as the assembly proceeded, challenges occurred due to the different assembly conditions in the company and GE. The company applied partially pre-welded pipeline system and assembled the joints such as casings on site, which was doubted by GE personnel at first. After Shen Yuan led his team to pair the joints, dismantle and weld the joints and apply surface treatment to perfectly assemble the joints, the GE personnel were finally relieved of misgivings and spoke highly of the welded joints of the company. The assembly of the oil inlet pipe and oil return pipe on the No. 1 shaft of 6F.03 gas turbine was very challenging since the assembly space was very tight, the oil inlet pipe was enclosed inside the oil return pipe and close to the motor shaft, which required a change of the partial space. Shen Yuan proposed to add a drum along the axis to adjust the special position, which was approved by the designer. In the end they successfully installed the oil inlet pipe and oil return pipe on No. 1 shaft after three days. The assembly the measuring thermocouple on the No. 2 bearing bush of 6F.01 gas turbine posed a great challenge since the space for the thermowell is small and there were three U turns, which required extremely high installation skills. In the installation preparation stage, GE personnel requested to increase the number of expectedly damaged thermocouples due to difficult installation. After the electricians of the company and GE personnel paused the installation since they had successively damaged 4 thermocouples and were questioning if anything was wrong on the thermowell, Shen Yuan stood out and successfully completed the assembly of thermocouples by virtue of his “hand feel”. The process of adding proper lubricant and keeping tapping the pipelines, proposed by Shen Yuan, has been recognized by GE personnel. Shen Yuan not only boasts excellent production skills of gas turbines, but is also leading a field production team that is orderly and dares to shoulder responsibilities. On March 12, the company requested to transfer the first 6F.03 gas turbine to the test station. Since the unit was the first of its kind, nearly half the pipelines were not installed yet 10 days before the transfer. The deadline was pushing. Shen Yuan said as a communist and a model worker he would lead the team to guarantee the completion of the mission. Under his call, the whole team was united and worked day and night to complete every task assigned by Shen Yuan on schedule. With the joint efforts, the unit was transferred to the test station on March 12, which was 18 days ahead of the schedule.

Shen Yuan has led the team to complete the assembly and production of more than 50 units of 6B, 9E and 6F gas turbine pipelines with stable and ever-improving quality. As a man who values the company’s benefits more than his own, he has devoted his passion to the manufacturing of gas turbines, and interpreted the leading role of a communist and a model worker with practical actions. Due to excellent performance, Shen Yuan was titled the “Model Worker of Nanjing” in 2015 and awarded other honors such as the “Advanced Worker of the Group Company”, the “Excellent Communist of the Company” and the “Silver and Bronze Prize of Quality” for many times.