Author Archives: Marie

EGS commission and undertake sea trials for major ocean research vessel

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30th April – 18th May 2012

The latest EGS developments across the departments.

Retrofit

Within last fortnight’s news we highlighted a controls upgrade project we have been working on for a major ocean research vessel consisting of a triple redundant electronic governing system made up of two 723 PLUS controls and two PGA-EGs.

Following the successful completion of testing on the project, Service Engineers Karl and Jon are completing the final installation on site with commission imminently due to take place.  We will then conduct sea trials at the end of the week. We are looking forward to having the project successfully completed for our customer and witnessing the improvements the newly installed system will produce.

In the meantime within the retrofit department, we have technician Kevin working on the cabinet for British Sugar which is due to be delivered to site next week.

Overhaul

This fortnight within the overhaul department we have a number of routine overhaul jobs such as an RE governor which we are overhauling on behalf of our agent covering the Middle East and Asia, Ian Skins.

We also have 12 Woodward UG governors coming for overhaul from the Far East in addition to an urgent UG40 actuator overhaul, which several members of our team are currently working on.

We also have engineer Mick overhauling two Ansaldo steam valves.

Development

We are currently working with web design agency Cyber-Duck to design an E-shot, which we will send out to our customers on a monthly basis to update them of EGS news and offers. If you wish to sign up to receive this, please get in touch via our contact page or email marketing@egsgov.com

Fortnightly Blog – EGS and GE combine marketing strategy.

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16th – 27th April 2012

It has been a jam-packed two weeks at EGS with exciting jobs taking place across the board. Unfortunately our dear colleague, Service Manager Steve has been unwell but is resting and recovering well from home. As such a key, loved-by-all EGS team member of 27 years, we postponed our Sloppy Joe launch party in order that he can attend. The new date is the 1st of June and we’re all looking forward to getting together and celebrating EGS’ new look.

Retrofit

For several months we have been planning and preparing a controls upgrade for a major ocean research vessel.

Applications Engineers Jon and Karl have recently completed the work and are currently at the final Factory Acceptance Test (FAT Testing) stage. After months of focused planning followed by rigorous initial stages of testing, they are anxious to see the complete system tested and signed off.

The equipment the customer originally had in place were two PGAs which we will be replacing with a triple redundant electronic governing system consisting of a primary electronic governor (a Woodward 723 PLUS for each engine) controlling a pneumatic governing actuator (a PGA-EG for each engine) consisting of a backup mechanical control and manual control. This will then be wired to interface with the ship controls and redundant system.

We are today testing the 723 PLUS cabinet interfacing with the PGA-EGs using simulating signals for all signals the complete system will monitor and control within determined parameters.

The system will also consist of a HMI package facilitating simple and effective monitoring of data.

Overhaul

We currently have three Sulzer governors at the works for overhaul. Governor Technician Mick has been working on the project and has so far completed one of the three. For an obsolete governor this was a fairly routine overhaul; the pins and bushing were replaced due to wear. The only parts which required serious attention were firstly the bell housing, which had smashed indicating it may potentially have been dropped, and the output lever which was also severely broken. These parts had to be remanufactured as they could not be sourced worldwide.

This completed Sulzer governor is today being tested, and Mick will then move onto completing the remaining two. For more information on our obsolete governor overhaul work, check out our Sulzer case study which goes into more detail.

We have a number of other overhaul and supply projects taking place over the works the last two weeks, to mention but a few:

We received an order for a ProTech G11 from a long standing steam turbine company, in addition to a large order of 20 EGCP-2 electronic governor controls from a UK genset builder.

Over the last week we have also completed numerous overhauls for Wartsila, as their preferred overhaul service provider. Governor Technicians Steve and James have been working on two UGAs, a 3161 and a PGA for this highly valued EGS customer.

Another interesting order is for 5 pneumatic head PSGs a particularly specialised type of governor.

Other EGS news

This week Sales and Marketing Manager, April, has met with GE Oil & Gas team to discuss various developments across the business in addition to looking at marketing strategy and exhibitions to showcase our capabilities. We very much enjoy these opportunities to meet with GE, build our relationships with them in addition to sharing expertise and resources. We look forward to further collaborative projects with GE in the future.

The Official Launch of EGS: The brand and the website

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Friday 20th April 2012

Following the soft launch of the website on Tuesday the 10th of April, the new site is officially launched today.

As you can see we have rebranded to EGS (from Essex Governor Services) and have today launched a significantly revamped edition of the old website; a key part of our new approach to the web.

Strategy

Over the years, we have grown our reputation for high quality products and a precise, expert service which is second to none. The company has steadily expanded into new sectors from rail and marine, to petrochemical, utilities and industrial whilst developing the service offering to cover not only mechanical overhaul, but overhaul of electronic governors and turbine controls as well as actuators, steam valves and upgrades to control systems. As a result, EGS have been minimising risk, maximising profitability and equipping customers to make the most of the resources they have to hand. We wanted to showcase this growth and development to our customers and demonstrate that whilst remaining dedicated to the root of the business, we now offer the latest technologies.

When going about our web strategy, we didn’t simply want to display basic information about the company, we instead wanted to take the ‘user-centred’ approach and set out to discover what existing customers wanted to see. After conducting some research alongside our customers on their expectations and hopes for the website (we very much appreciate all those customers that took the time to assist us on this) we combined this valuable insight with the expertise of Cyber-Duck to identify which areas would require the greatest emphasis once the website reached wireframing and ultimately design.

The end result – The new brand

When considering the project, we decided that our renewed approach to the web and showcasing of the new areas of our business would not be complete unless we also redesigned our brand to complement these changes. April worked alongside Cyber-Duck’s Senior Designer Raj on the design of the logo.

We found our old logo (all of which can be found within our history page) whilst conveying the global element to the business, it did not convey what we did as a company, and in general was quite unclear. The new logo, a more contemporary design, maintains the global image of our company whilst representing the present and future EGS; the controls side of our business. What’s more, as a logo it is unique and bold and hence very much conveys what we are about at EGS.

The end result – The new site

An important element to the resulting website is that it caters for both those customers that want to take the time to learn more about EGS product and service offerings, as well as those who simply want fast, straight-forward access to the particular service, product or contact they are looking for.

We have informative videos of employees as well as intriguing content on how a governor is stripped down, inspected and restored to as-new condition. In addition, there is extensive information on all the products we supply and maintain as well as some examples of projects the company has worked on and the services we offer. We have included a history page to document the development of the company to date, and a team page to showcase our marvellous team demonstrating their skill and expertise, enabling our customers to have every confidence in the staff working with their product.

Moving forward

During the redesign process it was important that we got the point across just how focussed we are on our customer relationships, whilst also ensuring our newer product and service offerings are conveyed well. Now we have our website up and running, we will keep you up to date on our various day-to-day activities, in addition to exciting and unique projects that we take on as they happen. We are also keen to push our social media campaign, having set up Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Linked-In pages in addition to continuing to add to our website and researching what our customers would like to see.

We are currently working on producing an interactive diagram that, aside from the video demonstrating how a typical mechanical governor is assembled, will show how the governor works from the inside.

Throughout the redesign process, we have been looking at ways to improve our service, product offering, and the way our company operates. We are currently undergoing a significant refurbishment project within our offices with the view of improving efficiency and communication. We take each project step by step, but never cease to look to improve our business, move forward and ensure the customer is at the centre of each measure.

Fortnightly Blog – EGS launches its new website.

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2nd – 13th April 2012

Marketing and Events

After the completion of the final tweaks, our brand new EGS website soft launched on Tuesday 10th April 2012. To celebrate and to thank our team for their hard work and cooperation with the website production over the last few months, we have been organising a Launch Party which will take place at the end of this month at American bar and diner, Sloppy Joe’s. After testing, which will take place in partnership with Cyber-Duck over the next few weeks, official launch will take place with press releases.

In preparation for the official launch, the final video edits to our two videos (an ‘Introduction to EGS’ and ‘Our Overhaul Process’) have been made are now available for viewing on EGS’ YouTube account. They will also be added to our site over the next few days.

With the arrival of the spring weather, there has been an influx of road bikes at the EGS premises. This July, 11 members of the EGS team will be completing a 25 mile group bike ride to raise money for St Helena Hospice; a 24 hour, free of charge hospice set up in 1985 for anyone diagnosed with life-limiting illness. In anticipation for the bike event and preparation for training, road bikes, hybrids, cycling shorts and mileage are the current trends at EGS. We look forward to the event and will hopefully get some good photos to share. If anyone wants to join our team, feel free to get in touch.

Governor overhaul and supply

We currently have a number of jobs taking place within the overhaul department. Here are some of the highlights:

Firstly, we have three main engine PGA-V load share governor overhauls. These were routine overhauls with no major part failures; one of the three loadshare control blocks was replaced due to corrosion caused by water molecules in the air. Otherwise, the drive shaft and terminal shaft were replaced due to wear, in addition to all o-rings, bearings and gaskets which are routinely replaced within the overhaul process.

We are also building an exchange 1131-3G Regulateurs Europa Governor for an ex UK registered tank ship. This is a job we are completing for one of our agents, Ian Skins, due for shipment to Africa over the next few weeks pending the delivery of parts we have on order at RE.

We have also supplied electronic ProAct actuators to a new UK customer within the industrial sector and completed a 3103 gas valve overhaul for an offshore UK company, which is currently being delivered.

Retrofit, Service and Electronics

Within the retrofit department, Service Manager Steve and Applications Engineer Jon are currently preparing a proposal for British Sugar to complete a retrofit project in June.

In February we received the order for a Pro-tech TPO electronic overspeed protection system, part of the retrofit which would be installed in order comply with current legislation that states there should be a secondary electronic trip that is independent of the governor control system.

Jon attended site on the 11th April which resulted in the scope of the project being extended. There is now the addition of the CPC-II that is replacing the old unit and HMI Package for the control room. The Woodward 505 control unit is being replaced by a new one and the controls cabinet is being re-furbished. When complete the updated equipment should improve the safety and reliability of the turbine for many years to come. This proposal will be complete and delivered to British Sugar by the end of the day Friday 13th April.

Fortnightly Blog – EGS publishes its first fortnightly news update.

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19th – 30th March 2012

After five months of preparation for the new EGS website, it is a week away from launch. As part of a new Marketing Strategy, April Hatcher, Marketing Manager, will now be writing fortnightly updates on business developments to keep our customers up to date on our latest news. So let’s take a look at the last two weeks.

Video Production

We have tied up a significant proportion of our overhaul department’s time in the production of two videos for the website. We produced a video to cover the in-depth process of our overhauls with a focus on the reassembly after having cleaned, inspected and replaced parts as necessary. Governor Technician James volunteered for this role and commented:

“I was quite conscious of the camera, capturing shots every 30 seconds for several hours as I wasn’t used to being filmed while at work. It was an interesting and exciting experience however, I enjoyed taking part and really look forward to seeing the end result”

The other video produced was an introduction to the company which can be found on the homepage. We also conducted some photography from which to design an interactive diagram of a governor, to represent how a governor works. A sample of this photography can be found to the right; the full illustration will be produced over the next few weeks.

Thanks to the commitment and hard work of several individuals, we did not allow these events to impede the successful and timely completion of our on-going projects.

Overhaul

In addition to the disturbance caused to the overhaul department for the purposes of the website, we also had to cover an emergency breakdown of a Regulateurs Europa Governor 1104A– 4G-34R for a container company with whom we have worked closely for a number of years.

The customer telephoned as at 7:00 and had to have the governor returned and commissioned for the vessel to depart at 23:00 the same day. We immediately sent a service engineer to recover the governor. Upon inspection at our workshop, the fault was immediately clear; the gear pump had seized snapping the drive shaft in half. We had reason to believe that this was caused by oil contamination, and therefore also recovered and overhauled the booster unit to ensure this problem would not reoccur.

Retrofit

The retrofit department has had a successful few weeks and are excited by the prospect of our latest joint venture with GE. Service Manager Steve met with the Mechanical Systems Engineer for GE to discuss a control upgrade for 4 x 500mW turbines, updating the existing governing control system.

GE Engineer Ankit is particularly keen to work with EGS in this case to take advantage of our UK facilities. Over the next few weeks we will work alongside GE on the preparation of the proposal of one MKVIe per turbine with associated hardware equipment and support from both companies in the completion of the project.