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Recent content by Mililani

  1. Mililani

    Steam turbines rotor overspeed test

    There are two sorts of overspeed protection, electical and mechanical. Machanical, a bolt on a spring,the faster you turn the further out the bolt goes , at the setpont tit hits a finger and dumps the hydraulic system closing the stop valve. An electronic OS system looks at a speed pickup or a...
  2. Mililani

    Small Business Website

    Yes, I charge half as my and my customer, a utility has me watch over and advise the bigger companies field engineers. I won't be able to push BIG on one job and then work for them on another.
  3. Mililani

    Small Business Website

    Yes the bigger company could be a very good customer ,, but very big companies have more rules about contractors/independant engineers. Actually my second biggest customer pays me to watch and help the bigger company already. I charge half what they do for a field engineer, I have another 20...
  4. Mililani

    Small Business Website

    My biggest customer just sold his small business to a huge company and my little business might loose out. I need to start a web site showing potential customers what I do. Any good sites? What about yahoo for small business? I don't need anything fancy, maybe just a copy of a PDF brochure...
  5. Mililani

    Former employer is my first client

    I have one client that has bought over a thousand hours a year for 10 years. His rate is $80/hr, others pay 120/hr, but I seldom get more then 100 hours a year from them. Once you get below $40 you might as well become a math tutor, $25/hr. I can work as an electrician for $40 or 50. The lower...
  6. Mililani

    Frame 7EA Combustion Alarm

    The three TC's drop at the same time, this could indicate two different problems. 1. Combustion hardware. Are the TC's adjacent in the exhaust stack? 2.Control system hardware. Look at the control drawing, could a single point failure, a card, a loose connection make this happen? Are all three...
  7. Mililani

    Force on an axial compressor blade

    There is a radial force. There is also an axial force, since the compressor pushes the air the force is in the opposite direction from the air flow. The sum of all the blade axial blade forces is transmitted down the rotor to the thrust bearing. Axial compressors often have larger active then...
  8. Mililani

    when turbine trips

    There is supposed to be, often or always is a vent valve between the Speed ratio valve and the gas control valve. Look in the device summary for solenoid 20VG. When the gas system is not used this vents the inter valve area and keeps the turbine safe, keeps gas from entering the unit. If you...
  9. Mililani

    Which fuel cell for CO gen

    My customer owns a samll hotel and is interested in a fuel cell with heat recovery for his potable hot water. Any ideas which fuel cell company. His night electriacl load could be as low as 40KW. Thank you.
  10. Mililani

    Laser foundation questions

    I might be getting a contract to do the engineering for the installation of a large laser. I have never worked on a laser and so have a few questions: 1. The customer seems to think some components are too large for optical tables. Is there any guide lines for this? 2. He wants to have...
  11. Mililani

    Heavy Fuel oil turbines?

    The metals in heavy fuels cause corrosion in the hot section of the gas turbine. Vanadium and other heavy metals are liquid at the operating temperatures. Very small pieces of the molten metal deposit theirselves on the hot section and start galvanic corrosion. There is no need for water in this...
  12. Mililani

    Success Stories on Starting up your Business

    What do you charge for engineering services??? What are your competitors charging? Who are your competitors? I am competing with employees, a company can hire employees instead of my business. This limits what I can charge. If I am competing against other consultants then my rate goes up.
  13. Mililani

    Overseas rates

    USD 70 or so should be competitive in canada or Australia. Since the 2 companies I would like to work for are in the UK and france I wonder what would be competitive? The work I do is international but I have never worked directly for a european company. The USD is down so maybe rates will get...
  14. Mililani

    Overseas rates

    I work on projects where I can usually bill 55 to 80 hours a week. I charge expenses at cost. This allows me to be idle about half the year. But this year I lost alot of business when a small firm hired an employee. Once an empolyee is hired the expenses of the first 40 hours is a sunk cost...
  15. Mililani

    RSview SE factory Talk problem

    In RS view studio: When I right click on the root file of the appicaltion and try to make a new RS linx data server I get the following alarm, ""Unable to create area. The connection to the factory talk directory has been lost.""" What does this mean?? I am trying to create a stand alone...

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