History and current development of steam turbine production in Brno

“Well done is always better than well said.” BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Dear Readers, You are now opening a new edition of a book that I personally love and I believe that you will share my feelings about the book. We always look forward in our plans. We imagine what we will do, how and when, what we would like to achieve and we often forget about what has already been achieved, what we have participated in or what we can read about in memoirs that can be an important part of our lives – lessons learned from the past. The moment when my predecessors and colleagues first got the idea to publish this book was a fortunate one and I dare to say that it should be included in the overview of important events you will further go through. We are very proud that we can inform you about the unique company that produces and maintains turbines and that is today a respected part of the top Siemens concern. Regrettably, not all the colleagues you will read about in this book are still among us. However, they left an unforgettable legacy and I think it is our responsibility to maintain and develop this legacy for future generations in the same way so that our successors may proudly profess to this excellent plant as we do. The context and relations of the events in the company to the events in our country and in the world have their significance. We are all influenced by what is happening around us and we also influence our surroundings in the same way. When I look at the history of our company I see that the influence of our company has always been positive thanks to its innovativeness, human potential and top work performance. As our products that have left the gate of our plant have found use on all inhabited continents, I believe that I can say that we have also helped develop various industries in countries where our products have been installed. It has been a long time since the “century of steam” ended but we wish that technology also finds its significant application in the current one. I wish you pleasant reading and a lot of success in implementing your plans.

© 2010 Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery s.r.o., Olomoucká 7/9, 618 00 Brno, Czech Republic. All rights reserved. 3th revised and extended edition ISBN: 978-80-902681-3-5

Vladimír Štěpán Managing Director Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery s.r.o.

Toys Gadgets

Carl Gustav de Laval invented a single-stage impulse turbine in 1883. The turbine operated at 26,000 rpm with a circumferential speed of 400 m/s. De Laval’s turbine was used in a practical application much later.

Giovanni de Branca directed a steam jet onto a bladed wheel in 1629, thus inventing an impulse turbine.

Charles Algernon Parsons created a double-flow fifteen-stage reaction turbine (10 PS, 17,000 rpm) in 1884. Later, the speed was reduced to allow direct power output. The practical use of turbines had begun.

FIRST TURBINES USED IN INDUSTRY The priests of ancient Egypt used the so-called Hero’s globe, which operated on the reaction principle, as early as 120 B.C.

1885–1898 1895–1898 1897–1898 1896 1900

Charles Algernon PARSONS, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England Carl Gustav de LAVAL, Stockholm, Sweden Auguste RATEAU, La Courneuve, France Charles CURTIS, General Electric, USA BBC-Baden, Parsons system, Switzerland

undamental socio-economic changes occurred in the second half of the 19th Century in Moravia and Silesia, the eastern part of the Czech Kingdom of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The originally agricultural lands became industrial-agrarian areas. Two new industrial centres were established – one in Brno and the other in Ostrava. Due to the mining of quality black coal and iron ore, the Ostrava region developed into a centre for the iron and steel manufacturing and the heavy machinery industry. As early as the second half of the 19th Century, Brno was renowned for its textile industry, with the engineering industry growing extremely rapidly around 1900. The link to the main railway lines and roads to Vienna and Budapest provided another powerful stimuls for rapid industrial development of the city and the surrounding areas. The opening of the German-Czech Polytechnic in Brno in 1850, which was later converted to a German university, and the establishment of a Czech technical university with a mechanical engineering faculty in 1889, had a significant impact on the further development of industry. At that time Brno became a recognised developed industrial centre with the corresponding cultural and social infrastructures.

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rvní brnûnská strojírna (PBS) was established at that time and is connected directly with our story of manufacturing steam turbines. The beginnings of the company date back to 1814, when a small engineering workshop specialising in the repair and manufacture of textile machinery was established in ·lapanice u Brna in a converted local textile factory. Its founders, Jan Reiff and Jindfiich Luz, came from Würtenberg. The engineering factory soon extended its production programme to include the manufacture of other equipment, mainly steam boilers and steam engines. In 1824 Jindfiich Luz produced the first steam engine, a model of which is exhibited in Brno’s Technical Museum. Output of the early manufactured steam engines was around 8 PS at 40 rpm and the pressure of the inlet saturated steam up to 6 bar. Luz also made the first steam boiler in the same year. In 1837 Luz moved the plant from ·lapanice to Brno, where he significantly expanded the production programme. In 1872 Luz’s plant merged with Bracegirdl Engineering and became a joint stock company called První brnûnská strojírna (First Brno Engineering Works). The excellent technical level of its products, rapid industrialisation and commercial success helped the company to expand rapidly. In 1900 the company merged with Wannieck Engineering and PBS became the largest engineering company in Brno. After further mergers with Pauker of Vienna and Röck of Budapest, PBS grew to become one of the leading engineering corporations in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The company made top level equipment mainly for the food, chemical and power-generation industries. It was the largest manufacturer of steam boilers and steam engines in the Austrian Empire and later also became the largest manufacturer of steam turbines.

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The oldest existing view of the Luz factory in Brno.

Starting on January 1, 1900, a new currency, the Crown, was introduced in the Czech lands to replace the former Zlaty. At the beginning of the year, Czech coal miners went on an all-out strike; 80,000 miners were on strike and the strike lasted until the end of March. The new government led by E. von Koerber focused on solving economic problems, but language and cultural issues were neglected. At the end of 1900, elections to the Reich Chamber took place with little interest of voters; no major changes in the composition of the Chamber resulted.

A model of a steam engine

Fin de si` ecle ur story about turbine making in the city of Brno is one hundred years old. It all started back in 1900. At the Paris World Exhibition held under the Eiffel Tower, several inventors introduced the enthusiastic crowds to their functional steam turbines of various designs and construction. These were no new inventions, as the Swede Carl Gustav Patrick de Laval had patented his design based on nozzles positioned opposite a single impeller in an impulse turbine back in 1883, and the Briton Charles A. Parsons had constructed a turbine of fifteen blade stages arranged in series and placed in two casings, where steam went through from the centre to both ends in 1884. At the Exhibition, a French engineer named A. Rateau introduced a multiple-stage steam turbine which he had patented in 1896. And just a year earlier an American, Charles Curtis, patented an impulse turbine with two or three impulse stages and a vertical axis of rotation, which worked with a large heat drop. Steam turbines became the absolute hit of the Paris Exhibition. Since that time steam turbines started forcing out reciprocating steam engines, until then used to drive dynamos and generators. In spite of all its design limitations compared to the steam engine, the steam turbine had better efficiency and output. The new mechanical drive design, based on the rotary principle, was a revolutionary solution.

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In 1900, at the beginning of our story, První brnûnská strojírna (PBS) already had a history of successes. At the Paris Exhibition the company was awarded a Gold Medal for a steam engine with a new regulation system, designed by the Brno inventor Hugo Lentz. However, PBS engineers were fascinated by the reaction turbine exhibited by C. A. Parsons. By 1896, Parsons had already manufactured in Great Britain 60 turbines with a total output of 40,000 PS. The first steam turbine in Continental Europe was installed in 1900, and it used the Parsons’s concept. PBS managers Lohenstein and Hnevkovski and their colleagues had already realised before the Paris Exhibition the development potential and benefits of the steam turbine. There was practically no limit to the increase of the nominal output, turbines could use steam of considerably higher pressures and temperatures and achieve better efficiency. The exhaust steam was clean – it did not contain oil – and thus could be used in technological processes. Not only did they offer lower operating and maintenance costs, but also the new machines lasted longer and were more reliable. The PBS representatives reacted quickly and even at the Paris Exhibition started negotiating a licence agreement with C. A. Parsons. Encouraged by their past successes in the manufacture of machinery and power generation equipment in one of the largest engineering factories in Moravia, the PBS representatives were convinced that they would be able to master the production of new steam turbines.

The First Turbine Produced in Brno Hubert Booth invented the first practical vacuum cleaner in 1901.

Henry Ford established the Ford’s Automobile Works. He constructed his famous Model T in his assembly lines in 1907. It was an automobile, which had, according to legend, two gasoline barrels for the body and which started the sport of mass motoring in the U.S.A.

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rvní brněnská strojírna (PBS) representatives had started licencing negotiations immediately at the World Exhibition in Paris with C. A. Parsons and thus they got ahead of other European producers that still did not believe in steam turbines. As early as August 20, 1901 Parsons signed a licence agreement on founding a new company Öster reichische Dampfturbinengesellschaft – the Austrian Steam Turbine Company. This document authorised the company to produce and deliver steam turbines of the Parsons system to the lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Balkans. The company, whose chairman of the board of directors was PBS’s director Ludwig Lohnstein, as-

signed all the rights resulting from the licence agreement to První brněnská strojírna in Brno. Immediately after the contract had been signed, work started on the design. The first steam turbine of the P (Parsons) system was produced in 1903. It was introduced at the General Industrial Exhibition in Ústí nad Labem where it greatly interested visitors and led to the first business contacts. After theexhibition, this turbine was installed in the testing room in the “Vaňkovka” plant where it remained in operation until 1930. PBS had already established an excellent reputation from their good results from their steam engines. They helped the

The Lumier Brothers developed the first three-colour photograph in 1903. A blading plan from 1902.

A Parsons’ condensing steam turbine.

company to win the confidence of customers in their steam turbines. In 1903 the company won orders for 10 turbines with a total output of 7,150 PS and in 1904 for 17 turbines with a total output of 35,070 PS. The first steam turbine for a customer was ordered on March 26, 1903. It was a condensing turbine, 1,000 PS, 1,500 rpm, with spray condensing and inlet steam parameters 11 bar/250 °C. It was commissioned on November 24, 1903 in Brno’s power plant. The introduction of turbine production had a big impact on PBS’s

production level. Turbines laid greater demands on precision for production and erection. Unlike steam engines, the turbines required brass and bronze turbine blades, which were fixed in rotors. Compared with other machines of the time, the high rotor speeds resulted in problems with balancing and vibration. Other features included rotor bearings, contactless seals and the very small radial clearance between rotor and stator. After a short training period for several technicians and workers at Parsons in Great Britain, the quality of turbine production in Brno exceeded that of the parent plant.

What is the meaning of PS abbreviation? e have used the unit “PS” in the text as the output unit used by turbine designers in Brno until 1925. The following represents horse power: 1PS = 0.7355 kW.

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Moravian technologists founded the University of Technology in Brno in 1899. The centre of technical education has become the alma-mater of many future outstanding experts famous all over the world.

“Rusalka” (A Water Nymph) composed by Antonín Dvořák directed by Karel Kovařovic had its opening night in the National Theatre in Prague in March 1901.

The first Czech sportsman to beat a world record was František Janda-Suk, an athlete and discus thrower, who threw 39.42 meters.

A German Graf Zeppelin carried out the first airship flight on July 2, 1900.

G. B. Shaw wrote “Pygmalion” in 1905.

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Output of 150 PS, 3,500 rpm, inlet steam 9 bar/180 °C.

Ludwig August Lohnstein The Managing Director

August Hnevkovski The General Director

Brněnské městské divadlo recorded a European first in 1881: one of T. A. Edison’s companies introduced comprehensive electric lighting there.

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Steam Turbine of the PB – První brněnská System

Lord Baden Powel founded the Boy Scout Movement in 1907. After initial distrust of the conservative British scouts gained backers all over the world by their stress to honesty, fairness and love to God and nature.

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BS soon became independent in designing steam turbines. Licenced turbines, i.e., purely reaction multi-stage turbines were too long and for example they could not fit transversely in the machine hall of the power plant in Vienna where they should have replaced the existing steam engines. In 1907, therefore, the chief designer of

turbines Julius Fürstenau replaced several first reaction stages of the Parsons turbine with a Curtis wheel. Thus, an original design of the PB – První brněnská came into existence and was favourably appraised, e.g. by Professor Aurel Stodola. It was soon used by other foreign firms as well and later was extended in numerous applications.

The Emperor Francis Joseph I approved a set of the voting laws in 1907, by which universal and equal suffrage was introduced throughout Austro-Hungary.

A detail of the blading plan with a Curtis wheel of the PB – První Brněnská System. A detailed drawing of 1907.

Impulse stage

STATOR

The first turbine using the PB – První Brněnská System with an output of 5,000 PS, 12 bar/300 °C, at 880 rpm was delivered to the Engerthstrasse power plant in Vienna.

The first transfer of a photograph by using an undersea cable between Paris and London was carried out on November 8, 1907.

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ROTOR STATOR

Rudyard Kipling, the author of the Jungle Book, became the laureate of Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

Hollywood was established in Los Angeles, California in 1907. Several interconnected film studios grew into the factory for entertainment and dreams over the next few years.

Reactive stage

Who was Aurel Stodola?

ROTOR

Blading is the main part of the turbine steam path. It consists of stages. Each stage includes two blade rows: the stator blade row and the rotor blade row. Kinetic energy arises in nozzles by means steam pressure of expansion of the flowing medium. absolute Nozzles ensure speed and define direction steam velocity of the medium. Kinetic energy of the medium relative is transferred to active surfaces of the rotor steam velocity blades where the forces and moments are imparted to the turbine rotor resulting in its rotating movement. Turbine stages of two principles Utilised heat drop are used in practice: the impulse stage with a wheel rotor and diaphragms and the reaction stage with a drum rotor. In the impulse stage, expansion of the medium occurs only in the stator blading. Rotor blades utilise the kinetic energy of the flowing medium. In the reaction stage, expansion of the medium occurs in both the stator blading and the rotor blades.

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rofessor Aurel Stodola was employed in Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zürich, Switzerland. He was born in Slovakia in Liptovský Mikuláš. After he graduated in Budapest and Zürich and after practical experience in the Bohemian-Moravian Engineering Plant and the company Ruston a spol. in Prague. His career culminated in his work at the Technical University in Zürich in 1882 where he lectured on thermal machines until 1929. While working at the Technical University, he contributed, in his theoretical and experimental works, to the development of steam and gas turbines including control systems more than anyone had done before him. Due to his publications and influence on developments in the turbine industry, he is considered as the authority on turbine to this day. His best-known book was “Dampf und Gasturbinen” (Steam and gas turbines) issued in many publications.

A Czech doctor Jan Janský discovered four basic blood types in 1907 making blood transfusion possible.

Comparison of the turbine rotor lengths of the Parsons reaction turbine and the PB První brněnská turbine with a Curtis wheel.

The Czech Hockey Confederation was founded on November 8, 1908. It associated 12 clubs, 10 of which were based in Prague. In January 1909 a seven-member team composed of Prague hockey-players participated in the ice-hockey tournament in Chamonix for the first time.

Viktor Ponrepo, proper name Dismas Šlambor, opened “A Theatre of Live Photographs” in Prague in 1907. He therefore founded the first permanently operating cinema in the Czech lands.

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Powering the Warships of the Austro-Hungarian Fleet Viribus Unitis battleship powered by a 25,000 PS, 16–18 bar, 350 rpm steam turbine. A Frenchwoman Elise de Laroche took off with her twin-engine airplane Voisin to become the first woman to fly an airplane. On October 22, 1909 she succeeded in flying a distance of 300 meters. Elise de Laroche was also the first woman to obtain a pilot’s license and the license to fly an airplane. In 1910 the South American tango was becoming increasingly popular in the U.S. and Europe.

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Slavery was abolished in China in 1910.

rom 1905, steam turbines were also installed on ships and for example the passenger steamer Carmania was at that time equipped with a turbine with an output of 21,000 PS on a propeller shaft. This use of steam turbines did not escape notice in the firm either. According to special licence agreements, Parsons provided the Austrian steam-turbine company with the rights to produce steam turbines for the navy and the commercial fleets of

intended for direct drives had a maximum output of 25,000 PS and 350 rpm, turbines for auxiliary purposes had an output of max. 500 PS max. and they drove on-board DC electric generators. The technical specifications of steam turbines for marine systems contained a number of requirements for design, production and tests in factory testing rooms. The manufacturers had to resolve the problems of turbine operation under roll and pitch and in reverse mode.

Tests of a marine turbine when pitching.

On May 14, 1908, a special exhibition was held at the Prague Exhibition Grounds to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Franz Joseph I’s accession to the throne. The general public saw on display a large range of new technology, e.g. a reinforced concrete machine room arc, or radio connection between the Exhibition Grounds and Carlsbad.

A Czech technologist Jan Kašpar carried out the first long-distance flight between Pardubice and Prague.

the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These rights were later acquired by PBS as well. The Brno Engineering Company had partly transferred the licence rights to an Italian firm Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino and between 1910 and 1918 together they delivered 133 marine steam turbines for Austro-Hungarian battle ships, cruisers and commercial ships with a total output of 150,000 PS. This gives us the opportunity to direct our attention to the considerable increase in output. Turbines

A Czech opera singer Ema Destinová performed in the Metropolitan Opera of New York in 1909.

A German E. Mertens developed rotary photogravure in 1910.

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The Emperor’s decree of December 31, 1910 confirmed that Chinese officers were obliged to wear their hair in plaits. Plait was a symbol of the ruling Ching Dynasty.

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Tests of a marine turbine at a tilt angle of 30°.

ell-known ships included cruisers of the Viribus Unitis class – the Viribus Unitis itself, the Prinz Eugen, the Szent István and Tagetthoff. The ships were 152 m long, 24.3 m wide with a draught of 8.8 m. Displacement was 20,013 tonnes. The ships were driven by Parsons turbines. Each was equipped with 12 coal-fired boilers and turbines with a total output of 27,000 PS. Driving units enabled ships to reach a speed of 20.3 knots. The ships’ range between refuelling was 4,200 nautical miles. The appearance of the Austrian ships – dreadnaughts – was very elegant. The main deck ran in a single line, deck structures were closed, ships had two chimneys standing close to each other in the ship centre and two symmetrically located combat masts.

The cabaret hall Lucerna – the first Prague metropolitan entertainment establishment on Vodičkova Street in 1910.

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Steam Turbine of the PBP – První brněnská Parsons System The Titanic, the largest and the most luxurious ship in the world was shipwrecked in the North Atlantic with 2,201 people on board on April 14, 1912.

A Frenchwoman Marie Curie was awarded the second Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911. The Academy of Science, however, refused to accept her because she was a woman.

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he Brno Engineering Company drew extraordinary world attention in 1911 by design of the combined-blading turbine, designated as PBP – První brněnská Parsons. Designers Karl Krischke and Franz Lösel replaced the Curtis wheel and several of the reaction stages that followed with impulse stages with full admission. The low-pressure section continued to be of reaction design and the length of the rotor was shortened. The design utilised the advantages of impulse as well as reaction principles of turbine stages. The nozzle groups control

with partial admission was implemented, thus the turbine reached a high efficiency at a partial output as well. Prof. Aurel Stodola described the PBP system and rated it as the best in the world. In March 1916, PBS published the results of measurements from operation on a 1 MW turbine and in September 1917 on a 12 MW turbine in the Simmering power plant in Vienna. Internal efficiency reached values above 75 % and for the low-pressure section up to 81 % for condensing turbines with an output of over 5 MW.

Praga goods vehicles won the tender for supplying vehicles to the Austrian army in 1911. The order significantly contributed to the extension of the automobile plant.

Steam Turbine of the První brněnská Parsons system. A Brno technologist, Viktor Kaplan, introduced his own design of the water turbine in 1912.

Francis Ferdinand d’Este, the successor to the Habsburg thrown, was assassinated on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia. This assassination was seen as the last straw and the pretext for unleashing the First World War.

Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity in 1916.

Blades with a pressed root and a brass spacer were a typical feature of turbines up until the 1940s.

The architect Josef Gočár together with Pavel Janák designed in Prague the building “U Černé Matky Boží” in 1912, which was significant as the start of cubism in Czech architecture.

Condensing steam turbine – “PBP” system – in the Simmering power plant, Vienna. Probably the most famous picture – Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci – was stolen on August 22, 1911 from the Louvre in Paris, where it had been displayed since the time of King Francis I. The picture was discovered in the Italian Firenze on December 7, 1913. The painter Vincenzo Perugia was convinced of the theft.

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Labyrinths ensure contactless sealing of shafts, balancing pistons and blading. The sealing effect is achieved by the fact that the steam passes through a great number of successive ring gaps and ring spaces whereby the energy from pressure is converted into velocity. The flow of steam is limited by the volume of the expanding steam. Steam pressure is gradually decreased by conversion to kinetic energy, while the quantity of steam escaping is limited by the increasing volume of the expanding steam (current design).

The principle of the combined-blading turbine is used in the Company and other turbine producers in many versions to this day particularly for condensing turbines and turbines with controlled extractions. The drum rotor was hollow and rigid with its critical speed sufficiently high above operating speed. Its bolted design was patented. The balance piston according to Prof. Fullagar and the external rotor seals were contactless – of the labyrinth type. Progress had also been made developing the condensers. The fixing of rotor

blades with a shaped pressed root and a brass spacer was also patented. From 1906, turbines using exhaust steam from steam hammers, induction turbines using high pressure and low-pressure steam, back-pressure turbines and condensing turbines with heating extraction were also developed and produced in addition to condensing turbines. The unit output of turbines was increasing and for condensing turbines using 12 bar/300 °C for inlet steam it reached 12,000 PS at 1,440 rpm in 1911 and 20,000 PS at 2,880 rpm in 1918.

A new performance of “Jenufa”, which was shown on the stage of the National Theatre in 1916, finally brought respect to the composer Leoš Janáček. Janáček had composed this opera interpreted in a modern style, back in 1903.

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Development of Co-generation Equipment o-generation, or the parallel, simultaneous, combined generation of electricity and heat, was a concept promoted by PBS since the first decade it started manufacturing steam turbines. Although the first steam turbines were designed to generate electricity in industrial and public power plants only, as early as 1906 the Brno Engineering Company made the first dual-pressure turbines utilising waste steam from steel works, and the first back-pressure turbines supplying not only electricity to local grids, but also steam for technological processes in sugar mills, paper mills and chemical plants. These were followed by condensing turbines

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electricity

heat

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60

Co-generation versus separated production of electricity and heat (numbers are in %)

10 fuel: 100 district heating plant

co-generation

losses power plant heating plant fuel: 160 90

separated production

70

10 10

heat

60

50 electricity

with bleeds for heating and boiling, and from 1909 onwards also by condensing turbines with controlled extractions. When co-generation for the utilisation of heat became widely accepted in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, PBS was there again. An example is the combined Brno Heat and Power Plant, initiated by Vladimír List based on his experience in the Helgate Heat and Power Plant in New York. The new plant, designed and built in 1929 – 1930, supplied the city with heat and replaced 68 obsolete industrial boiler houses. The Brno Engineering Company supplied the new plant with two boilers and two back--pressure turbines with the output of 4.5 MW each, driven by 65 bar/450 °C steam with 9 bar backpressure, one 6 MW condensing turbine driven by 9 bar/220 °C steam, and other accessories. The advantage of PBS was that it had its own manufacture of steam boilers and other power plant accessories and its own designers. Thanks to these advantages, the company was able to offer clients solutions to their energy requirements at a top international technical and economical level. This was proved by the number of industrial co-generation units supplied for technological processes, municipal heat and power plants, co-generation plants combined with supplies of heat for industrial technologies and for the service sector.

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Co-generation plant consisting of backpressure turbines and one extraction condensing turbine

After four years of cruel and hopeless war, the autumn of 1918 brought the Armistice. The Allies had won, ending the insane bloodshed of the innocent, civilian victims and soldiers, and bringing new hope to small Central European nations, who fought for their national states. The Czechoslovak National Council led by T. G. Masaryk and his colleagues, E. Bene‰ and M. R. ·tefánik, fought for a free Czechoslovak state abroad; during October, the Council was recognised by France, Great Britain and Italy as the provisional government, led by T. G. Masaryk. A National Committee fought for the sovereignty on Czech territory. It consisted of representatives of political parties; their proportions corresponded to the last pre-war parliamentary elections. On October 27, the Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, G. Andrássy, sent a note to US President, W. Wilson, which assented to the conditions proposed by the US Government on October 18, which de-facto meant the capitulation of the Habsburg monarchy and the end to the First World War. A day later, the National Committee took the Military Corn Institute under its control and at the same time, applauding crowds filled the streets of Prague, celebrating the end of the war and newly gained national independence. In the evening, the National Committee issued its first law, which declared a new state. Slovakia joined on October 30, based on the Declaration of Slovak Nation. On November 11, 1918, Emperor Karl I. awarded the Member of Secret Council titles for the last time, approved the orders and his own abdication. He left of the royal residence of the Schönbrunn in Vienna, symbolising the definitive demise of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The newly-established states could start to develop their policies and economies.

Steam Turbine of the BB – Bauart Brünn System Czechoslovak Airlines (ČSA) was founded in 1923. It launched a regular commercial service from Prague to Bratislava.

The trial flight of a helicopter flown by E. Oehmichenem was successful in Paris on February 18, 1921.

The International Union of Writers, the PEN Club, was founded upon the initiative of a writer Catherine Amy Dawson-Scott in London in 1921. Prof. Stodola’s team – development of the new type of BB turbine in Neštěmice In 1920 the 19th amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America gave women the right to vote.

Balzer von Platen and Carl Munters invented the refrigerator in 1922, and it was called a Freezer D.

Erection of a turbine of the Bauart Brünn system in the power plant, in Timisoara, Romania.

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equirements for increasing the thermal efficiency of steam turbines increased after the First World War. The Brno Engineering Company reacted to these requirements by developing a new concept of turbines – the Bauart Brünn system with multi stage impulse blading. This new approach meant a major diversion from the tradition of reaction Parsons, or combined-blading turbines. Its inventors started from their own analysis of then-known energy losses in blade stages and tried to decrease them.

The establishment of the Soviet Union united 134 million people into one country in 1922.

H. Carter and Lord Carnavon discovered the Tutanchamon Vault in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt in 1922.

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stage with a greater pitch diameter of blades. For smaller volume flows they had to use very short blades below 10 mm with high total losses. Designers considered the BB system to be particularly suitable for high-pressure sections of turbines for which they designed and patented an original barrel turbine casing without a horizontal casing split. The Bauart Brünn system and its details were protected by a number of world-wide patents, some of which gave rise to long-term disputes with competitors. However, considering the necessity of using the multicasing design of turbines, all the advantages of the new concept

appeared to be insufficiently proved. The designers and inventors of Bauart Brünn turbines Franz Lösel and Karl Krischker sparked a world-wide debate due to their patents, leading to efforts to improve the efficiency of turbine stages and particularly the quantification of energy losses in the operating stages. They organised guarantee and research measurements on a turbine proto-

type installed in the sugar mill in Neštěmice. They invited a world authority in the fields of steam and gas turbines Professor Aurel Stodola, representatives of technical testing rooms of the Swiss Electrotechnical Association and a number of representatives of competitors as well as customers to be present at the testing. A detailed description of the tests and expert analyses survive in the archives.

Booklets from “The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik” by the Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek started to be published from 1921 to 1923.

A Czech chemist Jaroslav Heyrovský introduced polarographic analysis in 1922 – a simple way for determining the presence of chemical elements.

Karel Čapek introduced his new play “RUR” in 1922. The concept of “robot” used in the play became an international word.

A dual-casing back-pressure Bauart Brünn turbine for the Neštěmice sugar mill. 2,900 PS, 3,000 rpm, admission pressure 13 bar/330 °C, backpressure 1.5 to 2.0 bar.

Advantages of the barrel casing As an optimum they considered impulse stages with full admission, low heat drop at each stage, low steam velocities and circumferential rotor speeds. They created new designs of di-aphragm, nozzle blades and rotor wheels. Instead of the Curtis wheel they used, as a control stage, a partial-admission impulse

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A three-casing high-pressure condensing turbine with controlled extraction with an output of 2 MW, 30 bar/400 °C, 3,000 rpm.

he casing split is a horizontal bolted connection that divides the casing into two halves. This solution enables access to blading, easy removal of rotor and carriers with diaphragms and thus easier turbine maintenance as, well. On the contrary, the casing split is a source of leakage. The design of the casing split affects not only tightness under operation but also turbine loading rate. Connecting bolts in the casing split are very highly stressed requiring great attention in design and erection. Barrel casing differs from commonly-used casings in the fact that it has no horizontal casing split and thus none of the disadvantages associated with it. Sealing is easier and the cylindrical shape enables the rapid start-up and loading of the turbine. The barrel casing can be more easily manufactured as a weldment. These great advantages are offset by the relative difficulty of axial assembly of the rotor and diaphragms.

Masaryk University in Brno was founded in 1919.

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The first Winter Olympic Games were organized in Chamonix in France, in January/February, 1924.

The first automatic traffic light was set into operation on a crossroads in Wolverhampton, England in 1927.

The British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928.

The First High-pressure Steam Turbine with High Output of 20 MW in the World

View of a four-casing condensing steam turbine with an output of 20 MW in the Karolína power plant.

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he economic advantages of high pressure and temperature steam for steam boilers and turbines were supported in the theoretical work of many authorities. První brněnská strojírna was an established pioneer in this field when in 1925 it designed as a world’s first a high-pressure turbine with – at that time –

high output and an original concept of blading according to the Bauart Brünn system for the Karolína power plant. Although they did not succeed in putting its high-pressure section into continuous operation at the maximum steam inlet parameters this attempt preceded the other world producers by a number of years.

Josephine Baker danced her legendary “banana dance” in Paris in 1925.

A puppet called “Hurvínek” was introduced to the audience on May 2, 1926. Josef Skupa is the author of this character.

The gland steam system distributes steam between the turbine casing seals. From the high-pressure seals steam is led via a control valve to the low-pressure (vacuum) section to prevent air from entering into the condenser. GLAND STEAM Steam from the low-pressure seals is led to a gland steam INJECTION WATER condenser, which acts as a tube heat exchanger. A slight vacuum is maintained by a fan that extracts non-condensables from the gland steam condenser into the atmosphere.

The turbine had a number of further new details – steam sealing strip labyrinths, milled blades, design of diaphragms and their fixing in carriers, etc. What was more important was the original, and from 1922 to 1924 having the world-wide patented design of the barrel type of turbine casing without a horizontal casing split and its complex bolted connection. It presents one of the greatest contributions of the Brno Engineering Company in the design of steam turbines.

1,05 bar 0,96 bar

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Bedřich Šupčík won the first gold medal for Czechoslovakia in the Olympics in Paris in 1924 in rope climbing.

GLAND STEAM CONDENSER

It is used to the present day by world producers particularly for high-pressure turbines with high outputs for its structural and operating advantages (e.g. for ALSTOM Power turbines based on VAX and KR types). To create a riveted barrel casing, designers of turbines were inspired by boiler technologies of a high level, particularly with the forming and riveting of thick plates that were by then being used in the production of boilers.

Alfons Maria Mucha handed over a set of giant canvas paintings in Prague in 1928 – The “Slav Epic”, which depicted famous moments of Czech history.

View of barrel high-pressure casing during assembly in the testing room.

The high-pressure barrel-type casing of a four-casing condensing steam turbine with an output of 20 MW, 3,000 rpm, 121 bar/500 °C inlet steam, ordered in 1925 for the Karolína power plant in Ostrava.

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Franz Kafka published his novel “The Trial” in 1925.

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The highest building in the world was constructed in Manhattan, New York between 1929 and 1931 – The Empire State Building.

Single Stage Steam Turbines

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separate group of turbines in the production program included sin-gle-stage turbines with a maximum output of 1 MW. A number of types directly coupled to a driven machine were gradually developed as well as a number of

high-speed types with a gearbox for turbogenerators, feed-water pumps, fans, lighting turbo-dynamos, etc. Most commonly there were two-row or three-row Curtis wheels, axial or radial, overhung on a shaft or a pinion of the gearbox.

These small turbines were also used, for example, on steam locomotives as a source of electric energy for the whole train.

The astronomer Clyde Tombaugh announced to the world that he discovered the ninth planet of the solar system on March 13, 1930 – the Planet Pluto.

The Academy of Film Arts and Sciences started to award the prestigious awards known as “the Oscars” in Hollywood in 1929.

German design engineers H. Geiger and W. Müller designed and constructed the first “Geiger Counter”. This machine is used for radioactive radiation measuring.

The first football World Cup was organized in Uruguay in 1930. The home team won the tournament.

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The first automobile race was organized on the Masaryk Circuit in Brno in 1930. The German Hans Joachim von Morgen won in his Bugatti.

The Villa Tugendhat was built in functionalist style in Brno based on the design of the architect L. Miese van der Rohe in 1930.

In 1930, “Tonka Šibenice” directed by K. Anton was the first voiced film in Czech to be released in the cinemas. The picture was based on a story by E. E. Kisch. Other voiced films to be made in Czech included the hit “C.&K. the Field Marshal” by K. Lamač starring the famous Czech comedy actor Vlasta Burian.

A small single-stage steam turbine driving a feed-water pump.

Where simplicity is preferred rather STATOR than efficiency and where it is necessary to utilise as much of the heat in the steam in a few stages, it is possible to gain an advantage by using the Curtis stage – known as a C-wheel. The Curtis stage is the designation for a stage with one row of stator blading (or nozzles) and multiple rows of rotor blading. Reverse rows are inserted between the rows of rotor blading. Since the steam pressure drop practically occurs only in the nozzle and then only the change in the velocity vector is utilised, the Curtis stage is also referred to as the velocity stage. Common applications of the Curtis stage include simple single-stage turbines with a low output. Sometimes the C-wheel is used as a control stage for multi stage turbines in order to reduce the pressure inside the casing and to reduce the number of stages.

ROTOR

STATOR

ROTOR

steam pressure absolute steam velocity

Utilised heat drop

A back-pressure turbine for driving the condenser block of the main turbine (pumps for cooling water and condensate, and a liquid-ring vacuum pump – a PBS brand product patented in 1922).

The first amateur National Golf Championship of Czechoslovakia for the T. G. Masaryk Challenge Cup was played on Sunday June 1, 1930. It was played over one day and 36 holes. 17 players took part in the Championship which was won by F. Ringhoffer Junior.

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New Engineering Workshop on Olomoucká Street

A condensing steam turbine with controlled extraction in the testing room of the new workshop.

The economic crisis at the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s reduced standards of living and brought high unemployment; the crisis hit the Czechoslovak Republic as well. Before the crisis, Czechoslovak agriculture and industry were growing strong; in 1929, Czechoslovakia accounted for 1.4 % of world production, ranking as the tenth in the world. During the good years, the average wage of an industrial worker was CZK 850 – 900 and there were only 42,000 unemployed. One year later, the number of unemployed had increased two-and-a-half tmes. In August 1930, the state began a feeding programme for unemployed workers who were not members of unions and were employed for at least three months after January 1, 1930. Each single person received a coupon for the purchase of food equal to CZK 10 each week, while each married person received a coupon for CZK 20. People called these coupons “beggar’s coupons”. The Fascist movement, the leading political idea in Germany and Italy of the time, gained its followers in Czechoslovakia as well. Followers of J. Stfiíbrn˘ established a political party with a fascist programme called the National League. Czech fascism, which was fighting German fascism, did not gain mass support. At the same time, Slovak “L’udovci” led by A. Hlinka declared Slovak autonomy as their main political programme. On December 1, 1930, a second census was carried out. Czechoslovakia, consisting of Bohemia, Moravia, part of Silesia, Slovakia and Ruthenia, had a total population of 14,729,536. Prague had 849,000 inhabitants and was the largest city, followed by Brno with 272,000 inhabitants.

The Brno Engineering Company did not focus on turbines only. In 1932, they built a skating rink for Prague.

n line with development strategy, the production of steam turbines was gradually moved from VaÀkovka workshop to the new workshop founded by Luz on Olomoucká Street. In 1912 and 1913, a new pattern shop and heavy boiler production workshop were built there and, a heavy press workshop was completed in 1919. The construction of a new engineering workshop commenced in 1928; the workshop was to be equipped with mostly new machine tools. The machine tools were suitable for the general manufacturing programme, especially the production of rotating blade machines. The layout of the new engineering workshop encompassing 18,000 m2 and with an annual production capacity of approximately 50 multi-stage turbines allowed a continuous production process for steam and gas turbines and turbo-compressors up to 60 MW. For the last stage of the production process there were two big assembly halls and a test room for turbines and their parts, including balancing equipment. The workshop included an industrial heat and power plant, which provided enough steam to test even the biggest multi-casing turbines under no-load or partial-load conditions. The new workshop ranked amongst the biggest and best equipped specialised engineering workshop in Central Europe.

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Factory on Olomoucká Street in Brno in 1922.

Turbines of the Combined –blading Concept The Chicago gangster, Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in jail in 1931 for tax evasion.

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uring the worldwide depression in early 1930s, engineers were, with full enthusiasm and expectation of a boom, preparing new designs for condensing and back-pressure steam turbines, and especially types with controlled steam extractions.

of design. As for the design and technology, turbines were more demanding with the combination of a wheel rotor for the impulse section with the drum rotor in the reaction section. The total technical and economic effect of this combination appears in single-casing turbines.

The British aviators the Marquis of Clydesdale and Lieutenant McIntyre flew over Mount Everest at the height of 11,000 meters on April 3, 1933.

Steam turbines of the Röder system

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he ever-increasing requirements for reducing the dimensions and weights of turbines while simultaneously increasing their efficiency resulted in designers developing high-speed geared turbines. Firstly, back-pressure types of 9,000, 7,500 and 6,000 rpm for driving turbogenerators were developed at the end of the 1930’s and later types of 9,000 rpm

A back-pressure “Röder” steam turbine.

for high inlet steam parameters for driving feed-water pumps. To speed up the development, the Brno Engineering Company introduced the production of a new concept of back-pressure turbines of 10,000, 12,000 and 15,000 rpm with Professor Röder. The operating characteristics of the high-speed turbines were very dependent on the quality of the gearboxes, which were not produced by PBS. The overall results of applications of these turbines were positive and they were produced in ever-increasing numbers. The basic design concept of the Röder system turbines meets the operating requirements for high inlet steam parameters: • Radial axial symmetry of operating medium mass flow and temperature distribution around the axis of rotation and thus symmetry of thermal expansion. • Minimum radial clearances between stator and rotor in blading and seals. • High efficiency.

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was elected President of the Czechoslovak Republic for the fourth time on May 24, 1934.

Emil František Burian, a remarkable Czech musician, writer, actor, avant-garde theoretician and histrionic, founded the D34 theatre in 1933. His shows were characterized by topicality, scenic use of poetry and especially modifications and adaptations of foreign texts, which he used to great dramatic effect.

Single-casing, direct-drive steam turbines of the combined-blading type – C-wheel, several impulse stages and a low-pressure reaction section – are intended for outputs above 6 MW. An example of this design is the condensing steam turbine with an output of 16 MW at 3,000 rpm for 15 bar/375 °C inlet steam and 15 °C cooling water.

The Spanish artist Salvador Dalí painted “the Persistance of Memory” in 1931. This piece of art is usually seen as the prototype for surrealist painting.

Combined-blading machines based on the PBP system made use of the advantages of two basic systems of blading. They used a two row Curtis stage, the high-pressure section used impulse stages and the low-pressure section used reaction stages. The C-wheel worked with a large heat drop and thus decreased the total number of turbine stages. Impulse stages also reduced the number of stages. The reaction low-pressure section was used for simplicity

An interesting feature was the bolted rotor with a hollow drum and a bored axis. Bolted rotors were lighter and thus reduced the load on the bearings. The purpose of the bored axis was remove impurities and inclusions in the rotor forging, which had been identified as the cause of several destructive rotor failures. By increasing the outer diameter of the C-wheel and the subsequent impulse stages, these single casing turbines could be produced at rates up to 35 MW.

The Czechoslovak national football team beat Austria 2-1 in Vienna in April 1933. In doing so, they brought off a remarkable victory against an undefeatable “wonder-team” who had not lost a match for 3 years.

New types of condensing turbines, with a maximum power output of 6 MW, 9,000, 7,500 and 6,000 rpm with impulse blading and a C-wheel as a control stage. The first 60 pedestrian crossings appeared on the streets of London in 1934.

What are direct-drive turbines?

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irect-drive turbines are connected directly to the driven machine without a gearbox. Because this technique is only occasionally used in turbines for mechanical drives, direct-drive turbines are almost exclusively used with generators. In Europe, two-pole generators at 3,000 rpm are the most common; therefore direct coupled turbines are almost exclusively turbines operating at 3,000 rpm.

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On March 21, 1933, a law was passed on Work Loans. A state investment lender was to create a reserve to cover the state budget deficit and to provide the funds for increasing state support for the unemployed.

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Steam Turbines with Controlled Steam Extractions

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Walt Disney showed the first full-length film in 1937 – the colour film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.

he ongoing further development of steam turbines after 1930 was focused on reduction of the number of casings and operating stages and using combined blading. Single-casing types for outputs above 10 MW were used more frequently. The first (control) stage of impulse section was typically a “U-wheel”, i.e., a nozzle ring and impulse blade row with partial admission and with a greater pitch diameter than the following row stages. Two-row Curtis wheels were again used later, particularly for high inlet steam parameters. At this time, condensing steam turbines with controlled extractions became a brand

product of PBS throughout the range of outputs, inlet steam parameters, pressure, and mass flow of extraction, back pressure and vacuum. The firm gradually acquired a leading position in designing, producing and delivering steam turbines and boilers as well as delivering complete industrial and municipal heat and power plants in co-generation mode. The beginning of PBS’s production of turbines with controlled extractions stretches as far back as the first decade of the 20th century. Turbines with outputs of about 10 MW were at that time produced as single-casing turbines. They were equipped with a Curtis wheel with a large diameter fol-

lowed by reaction blading. Turbines with outputs from 10 to 25 MW were also single-casing turbines but they had several impulse stages after a C-wheel especially for high heat drops and thus had a shorter axial length than using reaction stages. It was a typical combined-blading concept with optimum blading and high thermodynamic efficiency. Turbines with outputs above 25 MW were dual-casing turbines with high-pressure impulse sections, which had rotors forged and machined from one piece, with low-pressure sections that had hollow rotors bolted together from three parts. Each rotor

had its own axial thrust bearing and rotors were coupled to each other by means of gear- or jaw-type flexible couplings. Designs which were noteworthy and also characteristic at that stage of development were direct-drive condensing and back-pressure turbines with one or two controlled extractions, frequently for two inlet steam parameters (use of low-pressure steam from the process), and with non-controlled extractions for process heat or feed and service water heating. The results for inlet and controlled extraction steam parameters, mass flows and outputs were very good.

Tatra Kopřivnice launched production of a new type of aerodynamic car, the eight-cylinder T47 in 1936, later the T87, which was then produced until 1950.

The new international airport in Prague–Ruzyně was opened in 1937. The design by the architects K. Roškot and B. Sláma won a gold medal at the world exhibition in Paris.

The first section of the Metro was opened in Moscow in 1935. The Decoration of the individual stations outshone the Paris Metro, making it still a unique object of its kind today.

A profile of the new type of reaction blades

The world-famous novel by John Steinbeck “Of Mice and Men” was published in 1937.

Steam flow diagram

An induction condensing steam turbine with a controlled extraction during assembly in the testing room. admission steam

Parking meters were introduced for the first time in Oklahoma in 1935. An induction condensing steam turbine with a controlled extraction.

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In addition to turbines with non-controlled extractions where a portion of steam during expansion steam for industrial use in the steam path is led out of the turbine, e.g. for regenerative feed-water heating, there are steam for heating also turbines with controlled extractions. Their advantage is that the extraction pressure is controlled, i.e. maintained at a constant level. This can be utilised in technological processes, for heating and other such uses. Turbines are technically feasible steam to with one or two controlled steam for condenser steam for Single-casing heating extractions. In practice, industrial use turbine with extraction turbines can 2 controlled extractions be imagined as two or three TURBINE turbines, mechanically linked GEAR UNIT in one or more sections. GENERATOR The first and second turbines are back-pressure, while the last can be condensing or back-pressure. The integration of these turbines steam for industrial use means higher requirements for calculations, control and steam to condenser steam for heating particularly for turbine design. Therefore, most producers Steam are capable of designing a turbine with one flow diagram controlled extraction as a maximum. Our firm steam steam steam for to for industrial belonged and still belongs to a small number heating condenser use of producers of turbines with two controlled extractions.

Construction began of the first light fortresses of the future fortification system built in the Czechoslovakian border zone in 1936. These buildings were based on the design of buildings of the Maginot line. A year later pillboxes designed locally were built.

The play by Voskovec + Werich “Těžká Barbora” (Heavy Barbara) had its first night in Osvobozené divadlo (Liberated Theatre) in Prague in November 1937.

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The Second World War started in Poland after the German Army attacked a radio transmitter on September 1, 1939. This vast conflict ended in May 1945 when Germany surrendered unconditionally.

War – Changed in the Mood of the Time

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uring the Second World War, PBS was engaged in the German Reich’s industrial system and production was based on its requirements.

An extensive and technically demanding task was the development and production of new types of power generation units for armament, chemical and metallurgical industries.

The first jet plane, the Heinkel He 178 constructed by Pabst von Ohain, took off in 1939.

The machine room with six turbo-sets in the industrial heat and power plant in Cheza, Záluží u Mostu.

The Charlie Chaplin film “The Dictator” was released in 1940 – a caricature of Hitler and fascism. Chaplin played the double-role of a dictator and a barber.

The biro, also known as the ballpoint pen, was launched on the U.S. market at the end of 1945. The pen was the invention of a Hungarian immigrant, László Biró.

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Turbines from Brno proved their operating reliability, in a rather non-traditional way, in chemical plants for the production of petrol from coal. During bombing, a protection system shut down the machines that had not been hit and switched them to running at no load. In 1940, PBS produced the largest steam turbine in the Czech and Slovak Republic territory at that time for the power plant of the coal mine Karolína with an out-put of 40 MW. Steam was reheated in a steam/steam heat exchanger located next to the turbine and the unit achieved very high efficiency. Over the period from 1939 to 1945, PBS was the largest producer of steam turbines in Central Europe due to its working program and production volumes. In co-operation with the

firm Brückner-Kanis, it also produced dual-casing marine turbines and participated in the development of an aircraft turbojet engine.

The world trend in increasing the unit output of power plant turbines affected the Brno Engineering Company as well. For example, in 1939 it delivered two condensing turbines with an output of 32 MW to the power plant for the steelworks in Linz. They had a typical combined-blading type with an impulse high-pressure section and a double-flow low-pressure section with the possibility of operation over a wide range of cooling water temperatures.

During the Second World War, the design team changed. Several German-speaking designers of Jewish origin were deported to concentration camps. Younger designers of German origin had to go to the front. Czech designers filled some gaps, mostly in auxiliary positions. The design office worked this way until 1944, when even the Czech designers had to dig trenches – first at Moravská Brána, later on (as the front approached) in Brno. Brno suffered air bombing. Air raids were announced by sirens when the American bombers passed Styria and Vienna. There were no shelters around the Brno Engineering Company and the designers quickly assessed the position of “ground zero” and used their bikes to leave the city. After the bombing, during the Spring of 1945 (when PBS was hit), work was suspended. The front was expected to reach the city. On April 22, 1945, four days before the liberation of Brno, some German employees supported by the destruction forces of the Wehrmacht set some sections of PBS on fire – the turbine design department, archives (37,000 drawings), main workshop, assembly halls, test rooms… Phosphorous charges were deployed in the premises, burning out even the wooden floor tiles. František Michele

On March 14, 1939, an independent Slovak state was founded one day after Hitler’s army had entered the territory of Bohemia and Moravia. On March 16, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was declared.

On November 17, 1939, all Czech universities were closed following massive demonstrations by Czech students.

In the summer of 1940, Great Britain started to form the 311th Czechoslovak bombing wing within the British Royal Air Force. The Czechoslovak pilots fought in many battles of the Second World War.

A condensing dual-casing turbine with steam reheating and an output of 40 MW at 3,000 rpm, 120 bar/480 °C inlet steam, 27 °C cooling water for the power plant of the Karolína coal mine.

Over the period from 1943 to 1944, PBS’ two largest condensing turbines were designed and partly manufactured for power plants in Upper Silesia with outputs of 54 MW and 56 MW. However, after the war they were not completed due to a change in the customer’s investment program.

In June 1942, in revenge for the assassination of the Reich Protector Reinhart Heydrich, the Nazis destroyed the villages of Lidice and Ležáky.

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The Czech Design School or the Brno engineering company, the Second World War ended in tragedy. Three days before the front reached the city, the German employees of the factory together with the German Army destruction corps burnt out the most important buildings – the steam turbine engineering department with its archives, the main and assembly workshops and the test facility. Luckily, the turbine calculation department survived. The extent of the damage raised doubts as to whether the company could be rebuilt. The backup drawing archives were taken as the spoils of war by the Soviet Army, and despite all the efforts, were not returned. Out of the 59 turbine design engineers working at the factory in 1944, 47 either emigrated or were expelled. Only 12 Czechs remained, who formed the core of the new engineering department – Josef ·vanda, Jífií Nevole, Stanislav Hep, Jaroslav Kozáãek, Miroslav Li‰ka, PBS was nationalised by the Decree of the Franti‰ek Michele, Bedfiich ·evãík, Jan Hoblík, Ludmila Ml˘nková, Minister of Industry of December 27, Miroslav Budín, Jaroslav Balos and Jaroslav Punãocháfi. 1945. In 1946, a national enterprise, První brnûnská a královopolská strojírna, A new drawing archive was established based copies of drawing found was established, which took over all in the departments which escaped damage, and drawings acquired assets of 4 companies – První brnûnská, from former customers/turbine operators. A number Královopolská, Bruna and Gefia. of foremen and workers brought their vast experience of many years

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to the renewed production. In the meantime, repairs continued on the factory workshops and machine tools. The first Czech manager of the turbine engineering department was Josef ·vanda. Step by step, the Brno Engineering Company managed to renew completely the steam turbine manufacturing programme. By 1947, the number of staff in the turbine design engineering department reached 55. First department managers and chief designers were appointed in November 1947. The 20 MW steam turbine for the Doicesti Power Plant in Romania.

The first production programme to be developed was the manufacture of spare parts for (and repairs of) damaged turbines. New orders started coming in 1946. First, the turbines ware completed whose production had started during the war. Later new types of turbines were added to the production programme. One of the first post-war turbines was a 20 MW condensing turbine for the Doicesti Power Plant in Romania. A 40 MW condensing turbine with steam reheating, already produced during the war years, was erected and commissioned in the Karolína Power Plant. The commissioning was accompanied with certain problems. Salt deposits on the turbine blades caused an unacceptable increase of the axial forces acting on the highpressure rotor, leading to repeated failures in the axial bearing. This gave rise to research into the functioning of segmented bearings, the development of a higher load-bearing capacity, new patented designs and, ultimately, to the establishment of more broadly-conceived research. An R&D steam turbine department was established at PBS. This created new foundations for the PBS engineering school in the difficult years of limited contact with advanced foreign competitors and professionals.

At the end of March, 1945, the representatives of the four most important Czech political parties and the Slovak National Council met in Moscow to create the programme of a new government. It was based on the communist proposal. The newly nominated government of the National Front led by Z. Fierlinger approved the so-called Ko‰ice government programme, which encompassed the basic political, social and cultural issues. The Red Army, which included the 1st Czechoslovak tank battalion, gradually liberated the whole of Czechoslovakia. On April 18, American soldiers led by General Patton entered the west of the country also as liberators. On May 1, a spontaneous rebellion against German occupants started – by May 5, it had reached Prague. On May 8, the domestic resistance organisation, the Czech National Council, and the military command of Prague concluded an agreement on the removal of German troops from Prague. A day later, advanced troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered Prague and extinguished the last centres of German resistance. The Decrees of new President, E. Bene‰, issued At the end of May, introduced a national administration of the assets of Germans, Hungarians, traitors and collaborators; some asset-related acts dating to the period of occupation were annulled. Later, such assets were confiscated. The heightened post-war atmosphere saw “the relocation” of local Germans, which sometimes involved unnecessary violence. Other Presidential Decrees dealt with the punishment of Nazi criminals by extraordinary common courts, the nationalisation of mines, banks, insurance companies, foundries and all firms employing over 500 people. He also introduced the compulsory requirement to work and the new Czechoslovak Crown. A monetary reform was enacted at the end of October and the beginning of November. The government ceded Ruthenia to the Soviet Union, which had supported it during the war.

The Beginning of Applied Research

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In 1946, the dancer Micheline Bernardini modelled the latest swimming costume – the bikini.

In 1947, the USA flew a pilotless aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. In the same year, Chuck Yarger broke the sound barrier flying a Bell X-1.

n the initial phase of steam turbine production before 1945, the research and development of turbines and turbine parts had no special organisation. It was primarily based on measurements performed on prototypes delivered to customers, or on test equipment installed in PBS premises. In 1947 a new research group was established to solve problems with thrust bearings and to collect and clarify experience from operations which could be used for further designs. The designs became much more complicated and that generation of Czech designers continued to follow world trends. In 1953, the PBS Test Institute was established and in 1958, the Power Generation Equipment Research and Development Institute was founded, focusing on steam and gas turbines, research on the strength and thermodynamic problems of turbine blades, the strength of rotors, casings and bolts at high temperatures, under dynamic operation, of combustion chambers of gas turbines and of turbo-com-

George Orwell published his futuristic novel about the consequences of communism “1984” in 1949.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization – NATO – was founded in 1949.

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A high-speed steam turbine tested for blade vibrations and the functioning of segmented radial bearings.

pressors of superchargers for engines. The Institute worked closely with the Brno Technical Institute, while PBS experts worked as external teachers for professional courses.

A back-pressure steam turbine, 1,500 kW at 7,500/1,500 rpm.

A tilting-pad segmented thrust bearing – PBS patented design. The first international classical music festival, “Prague Spring”, was organized in 1946. The festival opened with the symphonic poem “My Homeland” by Bedřich Smetana.

The Communist putsch in 1948 led to 41 years of Communism in Czechoslovakia. Testing equipment for research into thrust bearings.

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estructive tests on various types of blade roots were used to verify the results of strength calculations. Blade roots must be absolutely reliable in operation. The failure of a single blade can cause major damage to the steam path and thus put the machine out of operation for several months. A tensile testing machine was used to test the two most common blade root types – fir-tree root and T- root. Many samples were subjected to a gradual increase in load. Signs of plastic deformation were observed (see the deformation in the picture) and the respective force was measured. After processing test results, the blade root calculation method was improved so that higher precision could be achieved. Today, such tests are frequently replaced by FEA (Finite Element Analysis) calculations, which become more important as more computing power and increased knowledge of material elasticity and strength becomes available.

Seventeen-year old Alena Vrzáňová was the first Czech to become world champion in figure-skating on February 18, 1949 in Paris.

On April 22, 1947 Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund went on their first tour to Africa and America. They returned in 1950.

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The Czechoslovak ice-hockey team became world champions for the first time in 1947. The World Championship was held in Prague. Participation was prohibited to the Czechoslovak ice-hockey players in the 1950 World Championship, which was organized in London.

1950 – Specialisation in Steam Turbine Manufacture in Czechoslovakia In New York, Julius and Ethel Rosenberger were sentenced to death in 1951 for selling nuclear secrets to the Soviets.

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t the beginning of the fifties, the communist government decided that the development and production of steam turbines would be divided between Škoda Plzeň, ČKD Praha and PBS Brno.

The European Assembly approved the Declaration of Human Rights in 1950.

programme was also centrally controlled by the government. One of the by-products of the “Iron Curtain” was an embargo placed on import of steam turbines, resulting in an increased pressure to design and manufacture “tailor-made” turbines, primarily for other COMECON countries. This led to piece or occasionally low-batch produc-

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he problem of control valve actuation was resolved. The oil actuators situated on top of each control valve were replaced, because of fire safety considerations with several single-seat diffuser valves freely mounted on a cross beam. These valves were adjusted vertically by two spindles, attached to one end of a two-sided rocker arm. The piston rod of the main oil actuator, which was mounted on a pedestal, was connected to the other end of the rocker arm. A prototype of this combined hydraulic-mechanical control was used for the first time in the T-12-15/1.2 turbines with controlled extractions.

The Brno Engineering Company produced only two types of mobile self-contained turbines transferred from ČKD Praha. Other types were easily replaced by PBS types. A French expedition led by M. Herzog and L. Lachenal conquered the first eight-thousand-metre high mountain on June 3, 1950.

The company of Diners Club introduced the first credit card in 1950.

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All other manufacturing programmes of PBS were terminated by this government order – the manufacture of pumps, turbo-compressors, sugar mills, breweries, refrigeration equipment, construction machinery and piston engines were all handed over to other state-owned firms. The turbine development

A soviet movie “Dangerous Crossroads” was shown in cinemas on January 6, 1950 as the first foreign movie dubbed into Czech.

A mounted statue of the Hussite Military Leader Jan Žižka of Trocnov was installed in 1950. The statue was cast in 1946 according to the Bohumil Kafka’s model. It is registered in the UNESCO List as the largest mounted statue in the world.

tion, with the demand to satisfy as many client requirements as possible. The growing demands on the manufacture of steam turbines of various types forced an expansion of both manufacturing and design capacities. Many prototypes were made during this period, and the production volumes exceeded the prewar levels several-fold.

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mong other new products, 15 types of condensing turbines with controlled extractions were designed for turbo-compressor drive and exported to the USSR.

The Czechoslovak National Assembly adopted a law on publishing newspapers and magazines and on the Czechoslovakian Journalist Association on December 20, 1950. This made press publication completely subordinated to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC).

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Welded Drum Rotors

The radio station Radio Free Europe based in Munich started its regular broadcasting to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1951.

Deutsche Gramophon introduced the first long-playing record onto the 33 rpm market in 1951.

Welded drum rotor – preparation of machined rings for welding.

Part of an assembly hall – fixing of blades to welded rotors. The absurd play by Samuel Beckett “Waiting for Godot” was first published in 1952.

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urbine designers were faced with a serious problem requiring an urgent solution. The problem concerned the drum design of the turbine rotors – the feasible manufacture and quality of the forgings from which drum rotors were produced. The new methods of ultrasonic, radiography and chemical testing indicated hidden defects which were difficult to evaluate.

Metal works demanded that the forgings be smaller. Therefore the designers used bolted disc rotors. Later the technique of control stage discs welded to the drum rotors was developed, and finally drums welded from several rings were used. The first fully-welded rotor was used in a 10 MW condensing turbine made for the Nováky Power Plant.

Welding the root of the weld on a drum rotor.

The first artificial heart was transplanted into a patient in a Pennsylvanian Hospital in 1952, which prolonged his life by 80 minutes.

The Japanese company Sony supplied the first transistor radio to the market by in 1952.

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Welded drum rotor – cooling the rotor after welding.

The government adopted measures against the potato beetle in 1951. Special design of welded drum rotors allowed compensation for dimensional changes caused by welding.

Welders had to meet increasingly difficult requirements; they had to pass the highest grade tests. The turbine section of the Brno Engineering Company employed 60 welders both in its assembly halls and at sites. Since many trained welders were required, the PBS Welding School was established in Brno. Jaromír Suchánek was involved with its founding; who was also known for the papers he had published. His contributions, among others, made the school one of the best. The school trained welders for the whole Czechoslovak Republic. It issued its own textbooks. The classrooms had modern equipment, including overhead projectors. Four full-time instructors and ten external teachers worked for the school. Around 250 people completed basic courses and passed official qualification tests every year. Unalloyed, low-alloy and high-alloy materials were welded – sheets, pipes and pipelines. Pavel Bartoněk

The black horse Salvátor won the 62nd Great Pardubice Steeplechase on October 21, 1951. He was ridden by the 60 year-old jockey Hejmovský.

The film “The Emperor’s Baker and The Baker’s Emperor” by Martin Frič was first shown in November 1951. Jan Werich played the main role.

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The New Zealander Edmund Percival Hillary and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal were the first men to reach the peak of Mount Everest in 1953.

Building a New Testing Facility

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etween 1953 and 1955 all the technological equipment at the manufacturing plant in Olomoucká Street was overhauled and converted to a continuous production process facility specialising in the manufacture of steam and gas turbines with an output range of 60 to 80 MW. The original character of the specialised manufacturing

The first nuclear power plant was set into operation on the territory of the Soviet Union in 1954.

The first recording tapes were brought onto the market in 1953.

with a maximum brake output of 5 MW. The testing facility was equipped with its own oil system, condensing equipment and data acquisition system. By contemporary standards, turbine noload operations were tested, as well as the safety systems where the turbine was tripped by an overspeed governor at trip-

All turbines produced before 1945 and also after WWII were tested in the test stand under no-load or partial-load conditions. Since the testing facility had insufficient capacity and auxiliary equipment, a new testing facility was built in 1953-1955 during the reconstruction of the premises; it had three test stands with adjustable support beams; a fourth stand was built later. The capacity available for testing of steam and gas turbines thus increased; e.g. in 1977, 55 steam turbines and 20 gas turbines were tested. Gas turbines were tested at loads up to 6 MW and the output power of generators was wasted to the water evaporators. After 1993, the old testing facility, used mostly for testing small turbines, was closed down. Thanks to new ABB turbine technology, new turbines were not tested in the testing facility; only selected parts are tested, especially the oil system. The test room saw some memorable turbines, e.g. 30 MW and 60 MW turbines for Kuopio (Finland), which are still in operation, a 50 MW turbine for the Oslavany power plant, tested in 1962, and a 32 MW condensing turbine with a controlled extraction designed for the direct drive of turbo-compressors in an ammonia plant in the Soviet Union, which was tested in the Brno Heat and Power Plant.

The Praha TV studio started in trial operation on May 1, 1953. At the end of the same year trial broadcasting was launched from a TV studio in Ostrava.

Luboš Ptáček

Management of PBS in 1957; led by the Managing Director, Josef Pešl.

centres, the product flow and the transportation system were preserved, but obsolete machine tools were decommissioned and replaced by modern ones. Intermediate production stores were re-arranged, with the focus on the smooth and effective manufacture of steam and gas turbines. A new testing facility was built which allowed up to 50 multi-stage turbines to be tested per year, when especially required

The Czech runner Emil Zátopek won the 5 kilometre, 10 kilometre and marathon races at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952.

ping speed; by thrust-bearing displacement protection and relative rotor displacement safety devices, by lubrication oil pressure and temperature protection and by controlled extraction pressure protection. Measurements were taken of thermal expansion and vibrations in the turbine casing, its control functions and oil system. If specified by the client, tests of partially-loaded turbines could also be performed.

The new Škoda 440 Spartak first came off the production line at the car plant in Mladá Boleslav in 1954. Despite the fact that this car was intended for the general public, order lists and a quota system was arranged for its distribution.

PT 55 MW turbine in the testing facility.

The Czech tennis player Jaroslav Drobný won the Wimbledon tennis tournament in 1954. This was his second sporting success. In 1947 he was a member of the team which won the ice-hockey world championship.

Godtfred Krik Christiansen invented the “Lego” building set in 1954. Its name comes from the Danish “Log Godt” –“Enjoy your play!”

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PR 55 MW turbine in the testing facility.

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Development of Gas Turbines he development of gas turbines took place on a limited scale in parallel with the development of steam turbines. It started shortly after the war and was concentrated in a group led by Jaroslav Balos, Milan Kousal and Zdenûk ¤iãánek. At the beginning it focused on the development of a 1 MW gas turbine. After successful laboratory tests, the machine was installed in the Bratislava Heat and Power Plant.

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At the same time prototypes of exhaust gas driven turbochargers for supercharging diesel engines were developed and tested, together with prototypes of low-temperature expansion turbines for the chemical industry. The worldwide trend of increasing the power output and efficiency of gas turbines and the attempts to burn residual inhibited petroleum distillates in the late 1950s and early 1960s gave momentum to the development of 6 MW, 14 MW and 25 MW prototypes. However, the tests were not completed and the prototype development programme was terminated.

An interesting project conducted between 1969 and 1973 was the development of a 16 and a 30 MW package using aircraft jet engines from the TU 104 airliner. However, due to the shortage of powerful aircraft engines, this project too, had to be stopped.

In 1968, the USSR ordered 90 gas turbines to drive turbo-compressors in the compressor stations of long-distance natural gas pipelines, requiring the turbines to be made in accordance with a licence supplied by Nyevsky Zavod (NZL). PBS quickly became acquainted with the manufacture of these gas turbines, arranged the load testing of every turbine produced, remote electronic measurements and test evaluation by computer. Starting in 1972, the company produced nearly thirty gas turbines a year and became one of the four largest manufactures of these machines in Europe.

Of the other gas turbines produced, the low-temperature Joseph Stalin and Klement Gottwald both died expansion turbines (EXT) for special technological purposes in 1953 and this led to a slight improvement deserve a mention. Their development also included helium in social conditions. The death of Stalin led EXTs. Development and production of damp-air EXTs to hopes as the world held its breath between 1987 and 1990 proceeded in accordance with in expectation. “The world knows that special aeronautical requirements and resulted in the the death of Josef Stalin means the end delivery of six turbines to a rocket motor testing centre of an era,” said US President Dwight in the USSR. Eisenhower. However, the political orientation In the 1990s, after it merged with ABB, the Brno Engineering of neither the Soviet Union, nor its satellite Company abandoned the development and production of gas Czechoslovakia changed. The improvement was turbines altogether, concentrating fully on steam turbines. extremely slight. On May 1, 1954, the so-called Auxiliary Technical Battalions ceased to exist – these parts of the army consisted of 60,000 people, mostly those who were disliked by the regime, e.g. anticommunists, church officials, sons of former landowners or company owners. In the middle of June, the 10th Meeting of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was held in Prague. This meeting approved the policy of a “gradual stabilisation and increase in living standards”. At the time, the production of tractors and other agricultural machinery was developed. However, in the autumn the Czechoslovak and Soviet governments negotiated the modernisation and refit of the Czechoslovak army. At the end of November, elections to the National Assembly took place after six years. The elections, however, were only a “comedy” because of the system used. Single-mandate constituencies were introduced with only one candidate. The candidate had to be approved by the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. According to the results published, 97.89 % of voters voted for these candidates.

Basic Prototype of Dual-casing 25 and 50 MW Turbines The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I into orbit in 1957, the first orbiting satellite in the world. A month later Sputnik II was launched, this time with a dog called Lajka on board.

A dual-casings 25 MW condensing turbine with controlled extraction.

Alexander Poniatoff introduced the Ampex video-recorder in Chicago in 1956, thereby launching the video age.

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The first contraception pill was developed in 1955.

mportant strategic design projects included a prototype for new types of dual-casing 25 MW and 50 MW turbines with controlled extractions. An R &D group consisting of Miroslav Budín, Jiří Nevole, Stanislav Taufer, Jurij Širokorad and Ladislav Fiala led the design work, other employees performed thermal and strength calculations and technology verification. The basic prototype of the PT-25-90/10/1.2 condensing turbine, its parameters and original design concept were all new. New design features included its counter-flow

layout of both the high-pressure and low-pressure turbine sections (reducing the axial load of rotors), only three radial bearings and one common axial bearing for both rotors connected by a rigid coupling, welded rotor of low-pressure section, mechanical control of high- and medium-pressure control valves, the control diaphragm for low-pressure extraction, a new oil system and the ability to use the high-pressure section as a single-casing back-pressure turbine. PT-25-90/10/1.2 steam turbines were very successful in operation.

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ome customers still required single-casing turbines in the 25 to 30 MW range. The Brno Engineering Company offered these markets the existing proven turbines of the combinedblading type with updated functional modules (higher inlet steam parameters, which meant increased efficiency, hydraulic-mechanical control, multiple non-controlled and controlled extraction, new blade profiles and their strength dimensioning, improved quality of welded rotors). A 35 MW newly-modified steam turbine was also delivered to the Sundsvall Power Plant in Sweden.

Turbine labelling Turbine type K – condensing turbine R – back-pressure turbine P – condensing turbine with a controlled extraction for industrial use T – condensing turbine with a controlled extraction for heating PT – condensing turbine with two controlled extractions for industrial use and heating PP – condensing turbine with two controlled extractions for industrial use PR – back pressure turbine with a controlled extraction for industrial use

PT-25-90/10/1.2 (6000) turbine speed (rpm)

Czechoslovak TV showed the first live TV broadcast on November 7, 1954 – a live broadcast of a rally the Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí) in Prague.

The so-called Warsaw Pact was concluded on May 14, 1955. This military and political treaty united all countries of the Soviet block under the joint command of the Armed Forces.

pressure of 2nd controlled extraction (bar) pressure of 1st controlled extraction (bar) admission steam pressure (bar) turbine output (MW) turbine type

The academic Otto Wichterle discovered how to make contact lenses from hydro-jellies in 1956.

Plovdiv Heat and Power Plant with two condensing turbines each with two controlled extractions. A standardised model which was used in many plants.

Building was begun in Brasil on building a new capital city for the nation, Brasilia, in 1956. This event was a significant example of urban planning on a large scale.

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A cross-section of a PT-25-90/10/1.2 turbine, 25 MW output power, 3,000 rpm, 90 bar/535 °C admission steam pressure, controlled extractions at 10 bar and 1.2 bar, 20 °C cooling water.

Czechoslovakia saw the first nationwide mass formation-gymnastic show (“spartakiáda”) in 1955.

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Turbines up to 50 MW

The Czechoslovak pavillion won the world exhibition Expo 58 in Brussels.

The cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth in 1961.

Dana Zátopková set a world record in the javelin with a throw of 55.73 meters on June 1, 1958.

The first Paralympic Games were organized in Rome in 1960 – these were sports competitions for disabled sportsmen.

A 55 MW back-pressure steam turbine for the Vřesová Heat and Power Plant.

A 50 MW steam turbine with steam reheating in the Oslavany Power Plant.

The American satellite Tiros was launched on April 1, 1959. Tiros was the first satellite designed for weather observation.

The length of skirts around 1962 came close to the level of a regular belt.

Alaska became the 49th state of the United States of America on January 3, 1959. In the same year the islands of Hawaii also became part of the U.S.

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ne of the exceptional types and prototypes of steam turbines developed in Brno was the K-50-130 three-casing turbine with 130 bar/565 °C admission steam heated to 535 °C (world-beating steam parameters), designed and made for the Oslavany Power Plant unit equipped with a once-through cyclone boil-

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er also made by PBS. The development of this turbine was a reaction to the global trend in increasing the efficiency of power plants, even those with lower outputs, by steam reheating. Thanks to this type, the government extended První brněnská strojírna’s permitted range from 25 MW to 50 MW.

he following years focused on the development of controlled-extraction turbines with a maximum power output of 50 or 60 MW for co-generation plants. The basic PT-50-130/131.2 was developed. Because of the large volume flow and high inlet steam parameters combined with the large mass flow of the controlled-extraction steam, the designers used proven elements as well as those used by major world producers of 120 to 150 MW power generation steam turbines. A whole series of steam turbine types were later derived from this concept.

In this design type, the high-pressure part had a counter-flow arrangement with steam admission in the middle of the double casing; the stator blading was fixed in blade carriers. Emergency stop valves and control valves were located alongside the turbine and were equipped with their own oil actuators. Rotors were rigidly coupled

and assembled in three radial bearings, the middle one being combined with a thrust bearing. The low-pressure rotor was welded from several sections. Reaction blades had new profiles, tested for aerodynamic properties and strength at the PBS Research and Development Institute test laboratories.

Gold medals awarded at the International Engineering Trade Fair (MSV) in Brno 1965 EXT 80 RZ Expansion turbine 1969 PT 55 Steam turbine 1971 2A Turbostart 1973 ST 1.5 Gas turbine 1976 TK P-28 Mechanical drive for ethylene compressor 1977 Naďa BN 350 steam generator loop 1978 K-4.3-4 Mechanical drive for ammonia compressor 1979 EXT 408 Expansion turbine 1983 P-32 Kazaň high-speed steam turbine 1984 K-4.3 – N1 Mechanical drive for ammonia compressor 1986 HET-X-202 Helium expansion turbine 1998 ATP Series of industrial steam turbines 2001 ST3 Packaged industrial steam turbine

The complete electrification of Czechoslovakia was finished in 1960.

Jaroslav Heyrovský was the first Czech to be awarded a Nobel Prize in 1959. This was in recognition of the importance of his discoveries in the field of polarography.

The 55 MW condensing turbine with two controlled extractions was awarded a gold medal at the International Engineering Trade Fair in Brno in 1969.

The first heart operation in Czechoslovakia where the cardiac valve was replacing by prosthesis was performed out in Brno in 1963.

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Back-pressure Steam Turbine Drives for Turbo-compressors

Christian Barnard carried out the first successful heart transplantation in 1967.

The first tidal power station was brought into operation by the mouth of the River Rance in Brittany, France in 1967. The height of the tide reaches 8.4 meters; the dam is 750m long. 24 Kaplan turbines were installed in the dam with horizontal shafts of a maximum output of 240 MW.

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uppliers of turbo-compressors demanded an exceptionally operation-reliable back-pressure turbine with long MTBF (mean time between failures) and lifetime for the production of soda.

The radial stage blade of the dual-flow turbine is an example of a sophisticated solution. Balanced centrifugal forces allowed a standard axial tree root to be used – a system patented by Zděnek Kučera.

Of the proposed solutions, the winner in a tough competition was a unique-concept dual-flow reaction turbine with a radial control stage, developed by engineers in Brno.

The gymnast Věra Čáslavská won 4 gold medals in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico (vault, parallel bars, floor exercises, octathlon).

The radial control stage in the compressor-driving turbine was an A-type dual-flow symmetrical stage with partial admission. The control–stage rotor blades were twins fixed by a tree root. The designers made use of the advantages offered by the radial stage – direct inlet steam admission to the stator blades, good steam velocity, positive effect of the Coriolis forces on the utilised heat drop, large heat drop and high stage efficiency, plus the advantages offered by axial back-pressure blading in other stages – drum rotor and simple blading.

The director Jiří Menzel was awarded an Oscar by the Film Academy in 1967 for his film “Closely Observed Trains”.

A 537 metre-high TV tower in Moscow, the highest structure in the world of its kind at the time, was completed on April 30, 1967.

The American black leader Martin Luther King declared a campaign of widespread civil disobedience in August 1967 to make the government and Congress respect the claims of the black population.

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Jiří Raška won the ski jump in the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble in 1968.

Turbine driven by radioactive steam

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he advantage of the Brno turbine design was the low stress of the relatively short blades and their frequency tuning over a wide range of operation speeds. The turbines drove natural gas turbo-compressors.

n 1964 the Brno Engineering Company was assigned a task by the designers of nuclear power plants in the USSR. The order was to develop and deliver condensing turbines with a controlled heating steam extraction of top operating reliability for the Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant, situated beyond the Arctic Circle on the Chukotka Peninsula. The slightly radioactive steam with which the turbines were to work, required an increased leak-tightness of rotor and spindle packing. The project was further complicated by extremely difficult accessibility. The locality was accessible only by air or, for a limited period during the year, by the Eastern Siberian Sea shipping route.

Czechoslovakia was invaded by the armies of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria on August 21, 1968. This act ended the attempt at “socialism with a human face”, also known as “The Prague Spring”. The occupation by the Warsaw Pact armies lasted for 21 years.

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Iranshahr power plant – Iran, 2x64 MW, later extended to 4x64 MW. The turbosets are equipped with air-cooled condensers. The power plant is built in an extremely hot climate with strong seismic activity.

Gradually, the Brno Engineering Company got to the stage when it was in the position to offer turnkey power generation solutions. Such projects required preparation of the power plant concept, mass flow and heat balance, selection of all components, integration of all parts, designing, subcontracting, manufacturing and delivering the equipment to the construction site, assembling it and commissioning the plant. Power plants were constructed in various parts of the world, with very different climatic, technical, business and social conditions. With the growing technical excellence of the turbines used, the quality of design and construction gradually improved. Many of those turbines are still working in power plants and heat and power plants throughout the world.

Power Plants he ongoing process of turbine enhancement required machines to be incorporated into the heat cycle, where all their modern features could be utilised. Turbine accessories and their erection and maintenance meant that these tasks needed to be handled by experienced specialists closely familiar with these machines, and conversant with all their operating conditions. PBS management realised the importance of this and in the 1960s started paying increasingly more attention to power plants. Machines were offered together with other power generation equipment and accessories. Some of the equipment was manufactured in Brno, while other items were purchased.

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The industrial power plant for crude oil refinery in Homs (Syria). The plant was designed as a source of energy supplying the refinery under all operating conditions – a 100 % backup for crucial motors by steam turbines.

The Thaton–Burma Industrial power plant for a tyre manufacturing plant with a condensing turbine with a controlled extraction. The facility was built in a humid tropical area.

Simultaneously with the growing complexity of developing power plant projects, the department in charge of these works also developed. Its position within the company organisation chart as well as its internal structure changed several times. It underwent its last major reorganisation when it was incorporated into the Power Generation group, where, in close collaboration between turbine and power plant specialists, projects capable of satisfying even the most demanding clients are executed.

In the 1960s the atmosphere in the country started to relax slightly. Unfavourable circumstances forced the ruling Communist Party to liberalise the conditions for economic development as well as in other spheres of life. Serious problems such as the fabricated political processes of the 1950s were publicly discussed. Criticism of the regime culminated at the Conference of Writers. Although its participants were severely punished, the developing crisis in society could no longer be stopped, giving rise to the so-called “Prague Spring”. Some of the communist leaders attempted to reform the regime. First, Antonín Novotn˘ was removed from his post as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC) and replaced by Alexander Dubãek. Later Antonín Novotn˘ also abdicated as President and was replaced by General Ludvík Svoboda, a World War II hero. Members of the “orthodox” wing of the Communist Party sent a secret letter to the Soviet Union, asking their comrades to intervene militarily. The invasion, which, followed took place during the night of August 20/21, 1968. People demonstrated against the brutal invasion in the streets of cities and towns and attempted to stop the invading armies’ tanks with their bare hands. The reform wing of the CPC was forced to fly to Moscow and accept the terms dictated by the leadership of the Soviet Communist Party. All attempts to democratise the country were suppressed and its protagonists punished. The process of the so-called “normalisation” started.

The American astronaut Neil Armstrong from the crew of Apollo 11 became the first man to set foot on the surface of the Moon in July 1969.

Constructing a Turbine Manufacturing Plant for BHEL

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he role of the Brno Engineering Company in the project was to provide licensing for the manufacture of 1.5 to 18 MW industrial turbines, provide technical assistance when putting the Indian plant into operation and training approximately 250 Indian workers and technicians in Czechoslovakia. In 1975, the engineering company took part in the programme aimed at extending

the plant’s capacities to meet the needs of the developing Indian power generation and other industries. The Hyderabad plant was one of the most modern engineering workshops in India. When launching the plant into operation, PBS supplied BHEL with 33 turbines with various levels of co-operation and a number of other components and semi-finished products.

The complexity of the products (boilers, steam turbines and other equipment) meant that the production of parts was transferred to India step by step. Several dozen Indian employees – workers and engineers – acquired their first experience in the production plants of Czechoslovakia, including our company in Brno. Operating conditions were very demanding. Most turbo-sets supplied power to a separate electricity grid and had to maintain the grid’s frequency even during large fluctuations in output and unstable steam supply. Most of the power generated was used for the operator’s own consumption, electricity to the public grid was supplied only exceptionally. Around 1973, BHEL employees were able to start manufacturing power-generation equipment without the presence of our experts. Lubomír Sádlík

Britain and France completed a joint project in 1969 – the first civilian supersonic plane, Concorde.

A back-pressure turbine: power 1,500 kW, 7,500/1,500 rpm, 18 bar/290 °C, backpressure 1.7 bar driving turbo-generator.

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In 1968, the song “Modlitba pro Martu” (Prayer for Marta), sang by Marta Kubišová, becomes the symbol of the Prague Spring.

In India, it was customary before putting a turbine into operation, to perform a special religious ceremony to guarantee that the turbine was going to run without problems. The date of the ceremony and the date of commissioning the turbine was determined by the priests, unfortunately often with little regard for the project time schedule.

In 1969 the first Nobel Prize for economics was awarded. Ragnar Frisch from Norway and Jan Tinbergen from Holland won the prize.

A British doctor R. G. Edwards carried out the first artificial fertilization of a cell in a test tube in 1969.

Czechoslovak ice-hockey players won twice over the players of the Soviet Union in the World Championships in Sweden in 1969. Such victories were perceived in the Czechoslovakia as the nation’s revenge for the events of the previous years.

Practically everybody in the turbine business knows the largest manufacturer of power generation equipment in India, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. However, not many people know that the turbine manufacturing facility was launched with the assistance of the Brno experts. The co-operation, based on an agreement between the governments of Czechoslovakia and India, took place between 1961 and 1965. The principle contractor in the construction of the new plant in the Indian city of Hyderabad was the Czech trading company Škodaexport.

Foreign journalists working in London declared Alexander Dubček as the personality of 1968 on January 4, 1969.

Between 1969 and 1972, fourteen 1.5 MW to 15 MW turbo-sets for generator drives were installed in sugar mills, textile mills, chemical plants and steelworks in various parts of India. In addition, six turbines for compressor drives were installed in the largest steelworks in India, BOKARO. Trained workers first assembled each turbine in Hyderabad. Initially, the parts were imported from the Brno engineering company, but gradually their production was transferred to BHEL. After being assembled in the workshop there, the steam turbines were tested in a test room, disassembled and shipped to the customer. Only then were the turbines assembled, erected and commissioned.

The North Bohemian studio of Czechoslovak Radio started to broadcast programs for the Soviet Soldiers “temporarily” located on the territory of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic on December 8, 1969.

The satellite Intercosmos was launched in August 1969 in the Soviet Union. Czechoslovak scientists participated in its development.

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František Venclovský swam across the English Channel in 15 hours and 26 minutes in 1971.

Steam Turbines for Chemical Plants

The first calf was born from a frozen embryo in 1973.

“Jesus Christ Superstar”, the rock opera by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber, was first performed in the Great Britain in 1971.

Texas Instruments brought out the first pocket calculator onto the market in 1971. It weighted over 1 kilogram and it cost USD 150.

Two space probes Pioneer were launched to Jupiter in 1972. Each of them had a plate with a picture message about its origin in case it was caught by extraterrestrial intelligent beings.

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A P 28,100/4 (5,885) condensing turbine with a controlled extraction designed to drive turbocompressors in ethylene production technology. A K-4.3 MW steam turbine.

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equirements for the reliability of turbines used in chemical processes, which are dictated by their essential function in the technological systems, have always been exceptionally stringent. This is because of the need for resistance against aggressive substances, operational safety in explosive and flammable environments, precision and the degree of control.

New steam turbine concepts designed for these purposes were based on previous designs with lower output, inlet steam parameters and on the state-of-the-art designs of foreign manufacturers. Functional parts and modules proven in heating-plant turbines were used in the prototypes, although certain parts such as blades and rotor bearings required special design and complex calculations and tests.

Turbines driving fans, turbo-pumps and compressors were exported to the Soviet Union. These turbines were often run under a simple shelter only and were exposed to extremely low temperatures. Sometimes the turbines were commissioned at temperatures as low as -45 °C. The turbine had to be slowly warmed up and only then started up. These turbines had to be made of special material which was suitable for such low temperatures. This process was very demanding. The Russians themselves were very happy when the turbine was commissioned successfully, and the event was followed by lengthy celebrations. The turbines were installed and commissioned by Brno technicians, who also trained the operators. A unique turbine called the P32 was also supplied to the Soviet Union; it is still running at an ammonia-producing plant in Rozsosh on the Don River. The Brno Engineering Company worked with enterprises in different parts of the USSR, for instance in Nevinomysk in the Caucasus and Angarsk in the Baikal Region. Jaroslav Vinický

A condensing turbine for an ammonia-production plant. Blading was designed for maximum efficiency, low static and dynamic stress, optimal frequency tuning and for a broad range of speeds. The forged rotor was mounted on tilting pad thrust and radial bearings.

In chemical plants, steam turbines were used wherever there was a need to compress a large quantity of gases to high pressures in turbo-compressors or where it was necessary to provide drive for various machinery even after a failure in the power-distribution system. The machines were supplied to chemical factories producing ammonia, ethylene, methanol, soda, petrochemical products, metallurgical products, sugar and paper.

The Czech writers Josef Škvorecký and Zdena Salivarová founded the Czech exile publishing house in Canadian Toronto in 1971 – “Sixty – Eight – Publishers”. “The Tank Battalion” by Josef Škvorecký was the first books to be published.

Sixteen-year old Martina Navrátilová won the National Tennis Championship in 1972. This victory started her breathtaking career.

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he Brno engineering workshop was one of three manufacturers in the world to succeed in making and supplying a turbine for the extremely demanding ammonia-producing environment. This turbine was awarded a gold medal at the 1983 Brno International Engineering Trade Fair.

Operation on a section of the first Czechoslovakian highway from Prague to Mirošovice in a direction to Brno was started in 1971.

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Establishment of a Turbine Blades Manufacturing Plant in Mikulov

n early 1975, the Brno Engineering Company founded a subsidiary for blade production in Mikulov, a historical town near the Czech-Austrian border. The quantity requirements for these very important steam turbine components justified the construction of a specialised plant. Expectations for the demand for gas turbine blades were also high. The new Mikulov plant commenced test operation in 1978. The modern factory was equipped with powerful machinery by contemporary standards. The first products made there were blades for gas turbines. Later on, steam turbine blades were added to the production programme, and in 1978 also the manufacture of parts for the whole steam path section of gas and steam turbines, both for new machines and for servicing. The plant also produced some first-class specialists, allowing parts of production programmes to be transferred there from Brno, Motorlet Jinonice and ·koda PlzeÀ. During the first half of the 1990s, when PBS became part of ABB, the Mikulov plant underwent extensive modernisation. The factory was equipped with state-ofthe-art CNC machines and the Mikulov plant became the manufacturing centre for turbine blades not only for Brno, but also ABB Group companies abroad. The for modern

The modern machinery considerably simplified and speeded up the turbine blades manufacturing process. While in the past the process of making one blade required around 60 operations, after modernisation it was only between 12 and 15 operations, depending on the shape of the blade. The modern CNC machines are able to mill the whole blade root in one setting and the twisted part of the blade in a second setting.

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The Czechoslovak government under Gustav Husák was unquestionably subservient to Moscow’s orders, but in spite of this loyalty the country did not manage to achieve the degree of independence en-joyed for instance by Poland or Hungary. The government and Communist Party leadership suppressed any potential disintegration under the auspices of the Warsaw Pact, a process which culminated in their participation in the preparations for military intervention in Poland in the early 1980s. People who fought against the establishment and the abuse of power by the communists united in a movement, the manifesto of which became Charter 77. Members of the Charter challenged the representatives of the “normalisation” regime to an open discussion on a legal platform. The movement tried to monitor the compliance with human rights in Czechoslovakia, show illegal conduct and breaches of the Communist Constitution and attract publicity for these cases abroad. The period which started with the Soviet invasion and ended in November 1989, can be characterised among other things by the absence of justice and the passivity of the population, who pretended not to know anything about it to protect their families, or, as the Czechs say, “to play a dead beetle”.

Single-stage Back-pressure Steam Turbines

The first test-tube baby – Louisa Brown from Manchester – was born in July 1978.

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here was an ongoing demand for single-stage back-pressure turbines up to 1.5 MW output as back-up as well as permanent drives for pumps, blowers, compressors, mills, and other ma-

chines including generators. In 1950 a specialised design group led by Rajmund Svoboda and Jan Kalod started developing a model series based on pre-war designs. The M, PC and PCPL lines were developed.

In the M Series, equipped with a membrane control system, the turbines were directly coupled to the driven machine. New models had welded bearing pedestals patented by PBS.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Mother Theresa for her work with the disabled in the slums of Calcutta in 1979.

Output range: 20 to 700 kW Speed: 1,500 to 4,000 rpm Admission steam: 9 to 45 bar/475 °C Backpressure: 1 to 16 bar

Low-output steam turbines frequently work with high pressure and temperature of the admission steam. The speed of the shaft usually corresponds to the synchronous speeds of 3,000 or 3,600 rpm. The back-pressure steam is used in technological processes. The conditions described above led to the design of light and reliable turbines of the M and PC type without a gearbox, having a large diameter of the moving wheel and a minimal blade length, which worked with small partial admission. Although in some cases the advantages offered by the two-row or three-row Curtis stage could be utilised, these machines had a very low thermodynamic efficiency. The company, being aware of these limitations, was one of the first manufacturers in Europe to design PCPL turbine types with an integral gearbox and with a 400, 550 or 700mm diameter moving wheel. These turbines are characterised by the rotor overhung on an extension of the pinion shaft located inside the turbine casing, which is an integral part of the gearbox. This means that the turbine does not need separate bearings, and there is no need for a coupling between the turbine and the gearbox. This concept has significantly reduced the turbine’s weight, increased its speed and reduced its diameter. Stanislav Kubiš

Czechoslovak tennis players – Ivan Lendl, Tomáš Šmíd, Pavel Složil and Jan Kodeš won the Davis Cup for the first time for Czechoslovakia in 1980.

The film by Miloš Forman “The Takeoff”, shot according to the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, gained five Oscars in 1976.

The PCP Series was developed by modifying the PC Series by equipping the turbines with back-pressure C-wheels and a gearbox, and the PCPL Series was characterised by an overhung wheel.

Single-stage steam turbine series M

C-wheel with membrane control system

Mv

C-wheel with bellows control system

Md

C-wheel with membrane control system and horizontal casing split

PC

Back-pressure C-wheel

PCP

Back-pressure C-wheel with gearbox

Output range: 50 to 1,500 kW Speed: 12,000/750 to 3,000 rpm Admission steam: 10 to 90 bar/200 to 535 °C Backpressure: 16 bar max.

Vladimír Remek became the first Czechoslovak citizen to fly in Space in 1978.

PCPL Back-pressure with gearbox – C-wheel overhung on the shaft Turbines as back-up drives The PC Series were turbines with back-pressure C-wheels. Specially adapted PC 1100 models were designed for explosive environments with temperatures ranging between +40 °C and –40 °C. The turbines drove feed-water pumps, flue-gas fans and MEA-solution pumps. John Lennon (born on October 9, 1940 in Liverpool), the British musician who co-founded the Beatles, plus film actor and a record producer, was assassinated on December 8, 1980 in New York.

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Output range: 40 to 1,800 kW Speed: 2,500 to 3,300 rpm Admission steam: 10 to 90 bar/200 to 535 °C Backpressure: 16 bar max.

B

ack-up turbines are a special category of steam turbines. They are used wherever there is a need to keep the driven machine running even after a total failure of the power supply in the factory. This applies especially to chemical plants, where there is a danger of explosion or contamination by dangerous substances if pumps or compressors were to stop. These machines are also used to power emergency equipment – fire extinguisher pumps and air blowers. These turbines need to have a simple design, must be easy to control and have a very quick start-up. The latter prerequisite is particularly important, as it is necessary to guarantee that the drive change-over does not interrupt the powered machine’s functions. Both drivers are usually coupled to the machines they drive with a free-wheel clutch.

The dissident group Charta 77 published a document in 1977 drawing attention to violations of human rights in Czechoslovakia. One of the signatories was Vlasta Chramostová.

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Unified Modular Concept

T

A three-member British group led by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, finished the fastest and longest crossing of Antarctica when it reached the Scott’s base in 1981 in 75 days and triumphed over 4,000 km.

The development was done by a team led by Oldřich Mazánek and Bohuslav Svoboda. It is worth mentioning the use of reaction-blade shrouding – both riveted and integral shrouding. The introduction of both methods was the idea of the groups led by Vlastimil Nezval and Jiří Řezníček.

INTRODUCTION OF A UNIFIED SERIES OF STEAM TURBINES

VERSION

R

STATOR

Lady Diana Spencer and the British crown prince Charles got married in St Paul’s Cathedral in London, on July 29, 1981.

he principles of the modular concept were established in response to client requirements and experience with the manufacture and servicing of several thousand turbines. Functional and assembly modules of all output classes were unified into two groups: 4–25 MW and 40–60 MW.

Unified modules: • The input middle section and output flow-through section (casing, blading, rotor, rotor packing). • Input and extraction control systems. • Control measurement and safety blocks.

ROTOR END PLATE

IBM brought the first personal computer (PC) onto the market in 1981.

VERSION

PR

• Bearing pedestals with radial and axial bearings and rotor couplings. • Oil system. • Footing mounts.

The modular building block concept and its combinations.

A back-pressure turbine with a controlled extraction designed for pulp plants is an example of the 4–25 MW group. In February 1982, American scientists revealed six new moons of Saturn on pictures sent by the space probe Voyager 2. This increased the total number of Saturn’s moons to 23.

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Computers in the 1980s

A

de facto embargo on computers, the dramatic development and spread of which became a global phenomenon, resulted in Czechoslovakia lagging critically behind the outside world. Engineers in domestic industries tried to overcome this barrier and obtain necessary computer hardware as part of other products, for instance measuring systems. In the early 1980s, designers primarily used mainframe computers off the plant’s premises. Compared to today’s computers, their capacity was incredibly low, while these mainframes, which employed scores of people, did not allow the flexible access so necessary for solving technical tasks. Computer manufacturers the world over realised that technical applications required on-line access to the computer, and started developing and producing desktop computers. The very first such machine at PBS was an HP 9810 calculator which made it possible to programme a sequence of computing steps – algorithms. The engineers were so impressed that they literally lived at the office just to get an opportunity to use this new technology. Another machine, this time already a desktop computer, was an HP 9835 in the programming language Basic, which the company acquired as part of a data acquisition system for the testing of gas turbines in the test laboratory. The first PC – an IBM XT – was acquired in a similar way. All these computers were used by the Design Department and the VUEZ Research Institute in parallel with mainframes. The first CAD systems were acquired only in the late 1980s when the engineering community succeeded in persuading political representatives that the country’s lag in CAD applications might become critical. And thus as part of the programme called 2000 Automated Engineering Workstations, PBS acquired its first two CAD systems. A 64 MW condensing version with an air cooled condenser was supplied to the Iranshahr Power Plant in Iran. From a design point of view, the turbines were based on the Kuopio model, with a counterflow high–pressure section. The inlet was in the middle of the turbine. The concept allowed a better equalisation of the axial forces and the reduction of losses. The use of an internal nozzle box led to the simplification of the turbine casing design in spite of the high admission steam parameters of 130 bar/535 °C. The turbines for Iranshahr together with the machines for Norilsk and Mělník were the high points of the Brno design school, represented by the team led by Bohuslav Brettschneider. The turbines used unified modules with proven operating reliability. To enhance their efficiency, they were also made with riveted blade shrouding. The shrouding became a standard feature. The back-pressure turbine supplied to the Kuopio Paper Mill in Finland is a representative of the 40-60 MW group. The exhaust steam and non-controlled extraction is used for the dual-stage heating of water. This was the first turbine with reaction blading equipped with riveted shrouding to be produced in Brno.

An assassination was carried out on the night of 21 to 22 February 1981 in the office of the Radio Free Europe targeting Czech editorial staff. The circumstances of the assassination still have not been completely clarified. Czechoslovak intelligence service agents probably organized and committed it.

Palác kultury (Palace of Culture) was opened on April 2, 1981 in Prague. Today it is known as the Congress Center.

Operation of the steam locomotives on the railway lines in Czechoslovakia was officially terminated on June 1, 1980.

18.4 tonnes of gold, which was stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War and deposited afterwards in the Swiss banks was returned to Prague in February 1982.

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The P32 Prototype

A The electron microscope showed the HIV virus for the first time in 1986.

Mikhail Gorbačev started his policy of “Glasnost” in 1986 in the Soviet Union. Many prohibited works thereby found their way to the general public.

prototype of a 32 MW turbine was ordered by the USSR. The turbine was used to drive three-casing turbocompressors for synthesis gas in a methanol and ammonia producing plant. Thirty five additional machines were to be ordered. The client requested that the turbine be tested under full load and speed. The test with extensive research measurements was carried out in the Brno Heat and Power

In 1983, the P32 was awarded a Gold Medal at the International Engineering Fair in Brno.

Plant. Two hydraulic brakes were used to dissipate the output during the tests. For the first time static and dynamic stresses were measured in selected blades under load and rotation. The tests were performed by the Power Generation Equipment Research and Development Institute under the leadership of Marta Oklešťková. The P32 was also the first turbine with segmented tilting pad bearings.

The Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to Jaroslav Seifert in 1984. Seifert’s daughter Jana accepted the award.

Mechanical drive turbines were designed for heavy duty applications in chemical plants; they were used to drive compressors in technological processes producing ammonia, ethylene, benzene, methanol, etc. In these plants, the main emphasis is on failure-free operation, technical reliability and long lifetime. Breakdown of turbine powering compressors means shutting down the entire technological process, which always means high operational losses. The work on the development and production of the P32 were done under a government assignment called “High-Speed Turbines for Driving TurboCompressors”, partially by the Turbine Design Department, but mainly by the District Heating Equipment Research and Development Department, which was detached from the Power Generation Equipment Research and Development Institute and transferred to the Turbine Division. A series of test measurements were conducted in the area of aerodynamics and blading dynamics, using models in external test laboratories, but mainly in PBS’s own test facilities. A number of alternatives were tested, including simulations, for instance the loss of an interblade damping pin. After completing the research and development works using component models, a prototype was built and a series of comprehensive tests conducted in the Brno Heat and Power Plant. To perform the demanding test programme, a number of instruments, sensors and other equipment had to be purchased. The outcome of these comprehensive and demanding research and development tests was a confirmation of the turbine’s guaranteed parameters, its good mechanical behaviour, low levels of blade mechanical stress, reliability of the proposed technical solutions and a preliminary schedule of start-up and loading diagrams. The whole complex programme of developing high-speed turbines had come to a successful conclusion. With the assistance of PBS specialists, the turbine commissioning and loading diagrams were optimised and tuned to match the characteristics of the specific type of compressor and the client’s requirements. Marta Oklešťková

Jarmila Kratochvílová set the world record time of 1:53.28 for the 800 metres in Munich in 1983. This record has yet to be beaten.

NH3

CONTROLLER Degasification with inert gases

HEAT EXCHANGER

COMPRESSOR

Lech Walęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1983. Danuta Walęsa accepted the prize on his behalf.

The P32 turbine had exceptional parameters: • Inlet specific flow at 380 t/h input corresponded to a 120–150 MW condensing turbine. • Controlled extraction at 340 t/h, pressure: 41 bar. • Speed at 9,014–11,830 rpm. • Output power of 32 MW. • Air-cooled condensing system.

TURBINE

TURBINE

AMMONIA TANK – DEGASIFIER

COMPRESSOR

The first successful heart transplantation in Czechoslovakia was carried out in the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) in Prague in 1984. Professor Pavel Firt carried out the operation.

NH3

N2 H2

Steam to process

HIGH-PRESSURE HYDROGENATION REACTOR NH3

Steam from boilers

Steam to condenser Recycled synthesis gases N2, H2

Testing a P32 in the test facility.

Turbines in the ammonia production process

A

The first official world championship in track and field athletics was held in Helsinki in 1983.

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mmonia is produced predominantly by a catalytic reaction from a synthesis gas, which contains one volumetric part of nitrogen and three parts of hydrogen, at a pressure of 20–100 MPa and a temperature of 500 °C in the presence of a catalytic agent (metallic iron with an admixture of aluminium oxide). A diluted aquatic solution of ammonia is known under the name of ammoniac. Turbines in the ammonia manufacturing process are used to drive high-pressure compressors compressing synthesis gas. Either condensing or back-pressure steam turbines, sometimes equipped with a controlled extraction, are used. The extracted steam is used in the production process. High-pressure steam is generated either in steam boilers fired by coal, oil or gas, or is obtained directly from the process by using heat from exothermic reactions.

The Nobel Peace prize-winner and founder of the Order of the Missionary of Love, Mother Theresa, visited Prague in November 1984. Known for her charity work, her visit was nevertheless kept under wraps so that only a limited circle of people could meet her.

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Privatisation uring the years 1990 to 1992, in the period of economic transformation, complicated and difficult negotiations were conducted between PBS, foreign companies and the new Ministries of Industry and Finance, concerning the strategic objectives and the opportunities for continuing development in the area of steam and gas turbines and boilers in the new economic environment. The so-called “Czech way” of privatisation was also considered, i.e. retaining a dominant interest and management of the company in Czech hands, and the option of acquiring a foreign strategic partner and establishing a new joint corporation, in which the foreign partner would have a dominant position. General Electric, Siemens and ABB showed interest in the negotiations. Late in 1992, an agreement was signed between První brnûnská strojírna and Asea Brown Boveri, to set up a joint corporation named ABB PBS. The PBS top management led by the Managing Director, Richard Kuba, participated in all these negotiations, in which the future

Among the major activities to be performed by this centre were: – Research and development as formulated by the ABB Lead Centre – Marketing and sales – Engineering activities for the domestic market and allocated export regions – Manufacture, erection and handover – Servicing of turbines supplied by ABB and other manufacturers

D

Richard Kuba

A significant contribution to the successful privatisation of První brnûnská strojírna was made by its Managing Director, Richard Kuba. Thanks to his personal efforts to find a strategic partner, the Brno engineering company is today one of the leading global manufacturers of power generation equipment. of turbine manufacture in Brno was at stake. The new company, ABB PBS Brno, was established by an agreement signed on January 7, 1993 and incorporated in Brno on April 15, 1993 in Brno.

PBS 1992 top management headed by Managing Director, Richard Kuba.

Within the ABB multinational organisation, ABB PBS was incorporated into the Power Plant Segment and within the Segment to the ABB PGI (Power Generation Industry) Division. Its main partners became ABB Turbinen Nuremberg (Germany) and ABB STAL in Finspong (Sweden). By that time ABB PGI had delivered to the world markets more than 10,000 steam turbines, with power output ranging from 2 to 100 MW and of a total combined output exceeding 103,000 MW. The newly defined ABB PBS sphere of operations was steam turbines of up to 100 MW output and stationary gas turbines up to 30 MW. ABB PBS became a PGI “ABB Technical Know-how Centre”, assigned to develop its activities and reporting to the ABB Centre Manager in Finspong.

Popular protests against the communist regime at the late 1980s gathered momentum. Demonstrations were brutally suppressed by the police. At the end of June, a manifesto entitled “A few sentences” was published, demanding freedom and democracy and signed by thousands of people. A duly reported and authorised gathering on November 17, 1989, during which students wanted to pay tribute to Jan Opletal, a student murdered by the Nazis, grew into an open protest against communist despotism. An organisation called Civic Forum was established, under the umbrella of which all activities fighting for the renewal of democracy were conducted, and from which political parties were later formed. Three days before the end of the year, the writer Václav Havel was unanimously elected President of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic.

The steam turbine production programme and its further development was reviewed in the new conditions to fit into the dramatically changed situation on the world markets, which opened to ABB PBS by signing the joint venture agreement. The main objective of the changes in ABB PBS, resulting from its joining the global manufacturer of power generation equipment, was to incorporate the existing PBS production programme into a common production programme of all ABB PGI companies, to streamline sales, cooperate production and future technical and economic development, and increase the competitiveness of the group on the global power generation equipment market. The strategic partner implemented major changes at PBS not only in production, but also in all non-production and administrative processes. An era started, during which in the course of only a few years the original PBS structure was adapted to the organisational and manufacturing standards of the global manufacturer, A workshop rebuilt as an office area was awarded the Prize the ABB multi“Construction of the year 1996”. national corporation. A significant change was, for instance, the introduction of a new electronic information system covering all technical, financial and administrative activities of the company, equipped with servers and several hundred personal computers, connected to ABB’s world-wide network. Changes in the manufacturing system also included introducing computer programs for thermodynamic calculations of turbine steam paths, and CAD systems for turboset design. An important step was also the implementation of 3-dimensional modelling, using the PDMS software. In parallel with these changes, concepts of sales, engineering activities, project execution, subcontracting, and purchasing of materials and semi-finished products were formulated, and together with departments of other divisions moved to a modern building, acquired by reconstructing the old “Sedan” manufacturing workshop.

G & V Technology

A

In 1990, Egyptian experts announced that they had uncovered a previously unknown Pharaoh town hidden under a village near Cairo.

Germany was reunited on October 3, 1990 when the 2 chambers of the Federal Parliament ratified the reunification treaty.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the leader of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, in 1993.

s part of its contribution to the new joint venture, ABB made available its know-how of turbines known in the professional community as G &V technology. After a very short but difficult period of implementing technological procedures in the Brno plant, the conditions were created to commence production of these turbines, first for German contracts and later for the company’s own contracts as well. The basic concept of the G&V steam turbines system was invented by the company ABB Turbinen in Nuremberg and was applied to all the types of mainly high-speed industrial turbines up to the output of 100–150 MW. After founding of ABB, it replaced the systems of BBC Bladen, PBS Brno, Go, and other producers. It was later also adopted by other owners Alstom Power and Siemens. The dominant feature of G&V turbines is the ability to optimise the steam path, while maintaining a high level of standardisation for the other turbine parts. Compared to the previous PBS turbines, their technical innovation was mainly in their systematic utilisation of high speeds, allowing top parameters to be reached while at the same time reducing the number of blade stages. From the manufacturing point of view, due to the fact that many parts are standardised, G&V turbines were significantly simpler, although it was specifically in the manufacturing process that their

close technological similarity to the products of the Brno turbine design school became apparent. The simplification of production resulted in a very desirable reduction in the machinery installed and in more effective use made of equipment. In 1995 the Brno Engineering Company adopted G &V technology, although many turbines which were leaving the workshop were still made – in accordance with con-

incineration in power generation. ABB had a lot of experience in this area. Shown in the picture below is an 11 MW condensing steam turbine with a controlled extraction, designed for a waste incinerator in the Swiss town of Fribourg. A non-conventional installation method was used there. The entire turbine package (42 tonnes) was lowered through an opening in the roof by a crane; a spectacle which attracted the attention of the regional TV, the press and many onlookers.

Leopold Šimůnek became the first Czech citizen to climb Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, in 1991.

The last troops of the Soviet Red Army left Czechoslovakia on June 30, 1991. A day after, a document was signed to dissolve the military and political organization the Warsaw Pact. An 11 MW condensing steam turbine with a controlled extraction for Swiss town of Fribourg.

A steam turbine of G-type on the workshop.

ę The French President Francois Mitterrand and the British Queen Elizabeth II ceremonially opened the Channel Tunnel on May 6, 1994.

An interesting application of the G & V system is an 84 MW turbine made for one of the world’s largest paper manufacturers, United Paper Mills in Finland.

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tracts signed earlier – on the basis of earlier technology. In the past few years the world as a whole, but Western Europe in particular, has been paying increasingly more attention to technology which utilises the heat released by waste

In 2001, a 27 MW back-pressure, high-speed G steam turbine with a controlled extraction was supplied to Minnesota Power in Cloquet, USA – the first delivery ever of a Czech-made turbine to the United States. The turbine is used to generate electricity supplied to the distribution grid. Part of the steam is extracted from the turbine and used in the technological process of the Cloquet Paper Mills. The whole turbine including the base-frame, gearbox and generator, was designed and manufactured in only eight months and commissioned within one year of signing the contract.

Two new states came into existence on January 1, 1993 by the split of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic – the Slovak Republic (President Michal Kováč) and the Czech Republic (President Václav Havel).

Restaurateurs Tomáš and Vlastimil Berger revealed in 1993 an original painting by Hieronym Bosch “Twelve-Year Old Jesus in the Church” (also known as “Jesus among Doctors and Law Makers”).

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The world’s worst-smelling largest flower bloomed in 1996 in the botanical gardens at Kew Gardens. The two-metre tall plant, a Titan Aureum from Sumatra, excreted an evil smell similar to decaying fish and dead mice. It nevertheless attracted hundreds of visitors.

District Heating Turbines

A

BB’s extensive manufacturing programme also included industrial steam turbines – suitable for co-generation facilities. The turbines are used to drive generators and to supply heating steam. The system makes use of the high economy of the combined generation of electricity and heat in a back-pressure or condensing extraction operation. The economy lies in the low heat consumption per one kWh generated by the back-pressure or extraction steam, because the heat of the outlet steam is used for boiling, heating and drying processes, and is

not lost without being used in the condenser. The turbines can also utilise the steam generated by waste heat from industrial processes – chemical, refrigeration, etc. The wide range of their parameters allows these turbines to be used in a broad spectrum of industrial facilities and in the communal sphere: – Output from 1 to 100 MW. – Inlet steam pressure from 1.5 to 135 bar. – Inlet steam temperature from 125 to 565 °C. – Backpressure from vacuum to 24 bar. – One or two controlled steam extractions.

An example of a back-pressure machine is the 6.6 MW steam turbine with a controlled extraction supplied to a pharmaceutical company in Poland. The extraction steam is used in the technological process and the back-pressure steam in the heating system. The turbine design allows for the next development stage of the plant; the turbine output can be increased to 14.4 MW by simply re-blading its rotor, replacing the blade carrier and connecting a fourth nozzle group.

TV Nova started broadcasting in the Czech Republic on February 4, 1994 as the first commercial TV station in the former socialist block.

The Ministers of Trade and Industry from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic signed the final declaration of the Central European Free Trade Association (CEFTA) on the February 4, 1994, committing their countries to liberalise trade within five years. p

Russian stock exchanges were overwhelmed with panic after the Russian Rouble recorded its largest fall against dollar on October 11, 1994: One dollar was sold for 3,926 roubles, though a day before it was “only” for 3,081 roubles.

F U E L

LOOS – 10 % ELECTRICITY – 30 %

–

G

1 0 0 %

HEAT – 60 %

p

Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister, was assassinated on November 4, 1995 by an Israeli student who wanted to put a stop to the peace process in the Middle East.

This 40 MW steam turbine is an example of a condensing machine. It has two controlled and two non-controlled steam extractions. p

W

G p

I

As of January 1, 1995, the European Parliament accepted Finland, Norway, Austria and Sweden as new members of the European Union.

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n condensing district heating turbines, the energy contained in the fuel is utilised to generate electricity and the extraction steam (0.7–24 bar) either for industrial purposes or for heating. The remaining steam is led to a condenser (0.05 bar) where it is condensed using cooling water or air. The turbine is controlled by the electrical output as

F U E L

LOOS – 10 %

–

ELECTRICITY – X %

1 0 0 %

HEAT – X %

CONDENSATION – X %

well as the extraction steam consumption – the extraction pressure. The quantity of the steam taken to the condenser compensates any difference between the steam required for the electrical output and the quantity of steam extracted. Heat losses are caused by losses from the process plus by the losses of condensation heat transferred to the cooling medium in the condenser.

I

n back-pressure district heating turbines, the energy contained in the fuel is used to generate electricity and the back-pressure steam is used either for industrial purposes or for heating. The turbine is controlled by back-

pressure, and the electrical output depends on this parameter. The net heat entering the turbine is fully utilised. Losses are caused only by the efficiency of the mechanical and thermodynamic processes in the work cycle. Assembling a 50 MW VEE 63 steam turbine with two controlled extractions for the Heat and Power Plant in Planá nad Lužnicí.

On December 13, 1995, the Veletržní palác (Exhibition Centre) was reopened after having been destroyed by fire in 1974. Moved to its premises are Modern Arts Collections of the National Gallery.

President Václav Havel awarded the Czech Republic’s first state decorations on October 28, 1995, the Czechoslovak Republic’s Independence Day.

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Restructuring and Revitalisation

In 1996, the Hyakutake Comet could be seen in the night sky with the naked eye.

A sheep called Dolly was born in Britain in 1996 – the first publicly-presented cloned animal.

Betting mania culminated in Great Britain in January 1996 with a lottery draw for the main prize of GBP 42 million. Three winners guessed the numbers correctly – 2, 3, 4, 13, 42, 44 – and each of them won more than 14 million pounds.

A

fter its merger with ABB, the Brno Engineering Company emerged from isolation to find itself in an international market environment. At the beginning, the management focused its attention mainly on implementing new technology. However, it soon became obvious that if the company was to succeed, considerably more profound changes

were necessary. The structure of manufacturing capacity and its internal processes bore the legacy of the years of a centrallyplanned economy and the strictly-regulated Comecon markets. It became obvious that if the company was to function successfully in a market environment, not only its structure, but also the thinking and approach of all its employees had to be changed fundamentally. In 1996 Eduard Palíšek was appointed Managing Director of the Turbines Division and immediately launched an extensive restructuring and revitalisation programme. During the restructuring stage, a detailed and thorough analysis was followed by cutting back on all levels of non-productive activities. This allowed the organisational structure to be considerably optimised. The changes affected not only all departments, but also the top management.

The restructuring only partly rid the company of the ills of socialism. Many of the processes were still considerably non-transparent and there was virtually no collaboration between departments. This was where the revitalisation stage was focussed. Changes in the management organisation created conditions for teamwork within departments as well as between them. One by one, all processes were described and formalised. A lot of emphasis was put on quality, both in the production and in all other processes including sales. Although the number of contracts signed declined temporarily, the processing of contracts focussed on quality, making sure that the newly signed contracts could be executed with profit and to the full satisfaction of the clients.

Eduard Palíšek Austria abolished the law prohibiting members of the Habsburg royal family to enter the country in 1996 after 77 years.

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The strategy of focusing on quality led to growing productivity as well as to a significant reduction in the overall manufacturing time. Logistics were enhanced by moving the manufacture of blades from the Mikulov Plant to Brno. The machinery layout was adapted to suit material flow. Other investments were made in CNC technologies and information technology.

Four Czech archaeologists uncovered an untouched tomb approximately two and half thousand years old in the prehistoric site of Abu Sir near Cairo in 1996. The last such revelation was made at the end of the thirties. They announced another significant discovery at this site in November 2000, when they uncovered the four-and–a-half thousand year-old vault of a judge and a university clerk of the Pharaoh Teti.

After completing the restructuring and revitalisation programme, the Turbine Division became number one among the turbine companies in the ABB Group with a view to its productivity and economic results. In the summer of 1996, construction was completed of the building in the centre of Prague designed by Vlado Milunič and Frank O. Gehry, which becomes known as “The Dancing House”.

The javelin thrower Jan Železný was voted the best athlete in Europe 1996. In this year, the double Olympic winner broke the world record with a throw of 98.48 meters.

F

ollowing the completion of a successful certification audit in 1995, Bureau Veritas International Ltd. issued ABB PBS their Quality Control Certificate, confirming that the quality control system implemented in the Turbine Division had been audited and found compliant with the requirements of the ISO 9001 standards. 75

After negotiations relating to security, the British writer Salman Rushdie came to Copenhagen to receive the Aristeion prize for literature. This writer had been sentenced to death by the Islamic fundamentalists in November 1996.

Development of ATP Technology

Madeleine Albright was appointed the first female Secretary of State of the United States of America in December 1996. She was born in Prague under the name of Jana Korbelová.

From left: Jiří Krejčí František Kristek Oldřich Zedníček Petr Hill František Navrátil Jan Sedláček Jiří Vašátko Norbert Kocourek František Nechvátal Vladimír Palík Pavel Řihák

A

The singer and composer Elton John was awarded the Order of the British Empire. The Queen Elisabeth handed him the order in 1996 in the Buckingham Palace for “contributions to the music industry and charity”.

In 1997 the film “Toy Story” was released in the cinemas. The special thing about this movie is that it was completely created using computer technologies.

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BB formed international R&D teams. For instance in 1993 the R&D objectives for industrial turbines were set in the ATP 96 R&D task. For this specific task, a team of experts from the Swedish ABB STAL, German ABB Turbinen and Czech ABB PBS was established. The objective was to develop a new modular series of steam turbines covering the whole range of required power output from 2 to 100 MW, using common platform components. The outcome of this joint effort was steam turbines known under the model designation ATP1 to ATP4. The task structure for individual teams corresponded with the ambitious development tasks. Some groups concentrated on the development of new turbines, others on the development of a common control system, lubrication and control oil systems, control

units and common design tools, i.e. software for turbine calculations and CAD systems. The Brno Engineering Company had people in practically all the teams. Its engineers participated in the development of turbines in the Swedish town of Finspong and Nuremberg in Germany, while the team set up to develop blading worked on their task in Baden, Switzerland. The results of the joint development efforts were symbolically announced by the company management in 1996 in Prague in the presence of the Segment’s Zürich-based management and all participating companies.

However, no technical development ends with the announcement of results and the manufacture of the first prototypes; it is an ongoing, endless process. Therefore this was not an end of the work on the ATP turbines. Shortly afterwards, the company reacted to new market requirements and started to develop the smallest of the ATP turbines – the ATPX, which was characterised by its simplicity and its low investment costs.

Assembling an 8.8 MW ATP2 condensing steam turbine for a waste incinerator in Madeira, Portugal. A characteristic feature of the ATP 1&2 turbines is that they are installed, together with the gearbox and generator, on a base-frame which also functions as the oil tank for the integrated oil system. This solution significantly simplifies installing the turbine at the site. This system was later adopted also for the G&V turbines.

The Central Depository of the National Library was opened in Prague-Hostivař in 1996. The building is considered to be the largest cultural investment project in the Czech Republic in the last hundred years.

A 7.8 MW condensing turbine with a controlled extraction made for Korea Zinc. This is basically a “hot-water turbine”. This, of course, is an exaggeration, but because of the very low inlet steam parameters and the high content of liquid water, the admission steam is not too far from being hot water. Hence more resistant materials had to be used and every rotating blade row had to be equipped with a drainage system. The joint efforts in further development of ABB steam turbines was marked by certain weaknesses on the side of the Brno technicians. The main problem was that specialists had insufficient knowledge of English. Their inability to participate fully in discussions in English led some Czech engineers to refuse to participate in meetings and, in extreme cases, even to leave the company. Another problem was their failure to understand the importance of cost-effectiveness, particularly in making use of outsourcing. Although this was understandable from a historical point of view, as in the past sub-contracting was often substituted by an in-house production regardless of the overall cost-effectiveness, this weakness continued to handicap us for a long time. However, our engineers very quickly acquired the reputation of respected professionals, and when the language barrier was overcome, they started playing an important role in each of the teams. Today, their position is fully comparable with others, and hence some of them are team leaders. The advantage of co-operation between the companies is obvious. Not only that with competing opinions the best solutions are chosen, but such co-operation accelerates knowledge in the field. It is also an enormous benefit to have the opportunity of being able to exchange experience with others as a source of self-improvement. Petr Hill

The Czech kayakist, Štěpánka Hilgertová, won her first gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. She managed to repeat her success also at the 2000 Olympic Games held in Sydney.

In 1996 a woman with a transplanted kidney gave birth to a healthy child.

“Kolya”, a film by Jan Svěrák, won an Oscar for the best foreign movie in 1996.

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An auction of pictures, letters and jewels from the New York apartment of the actress Marlene Dietrich, which was organized on November 1, 1997, fetched USD 659,000.

Modernisation of Turbosets in the Czech Republic The international conference “Forum 2000” was organized in Prague in September 1997, convened by Václav Havel and the Nobel prize-winner Elie Wiesel. Many respectable world personalities participated on the conference.

An ageing 12 MW turbine was dismantled in the town of Otrokovice, and after some alterations replaced with a new unit of a significantly larger output and better operating parameters. As in České Budějovice and Nová Huť, the alterations meant removing the top part of the turbine block and installing spring elements (insulators) on the foundation columns. The entire turbine module with an integral oil system in the base frame was then placed and installed on them. For all practical purposes, the frame replaced the top foundation slab.

T The 15 year-old American figure skater Tara Lipinska became the youngest Olympic winner in history in 1998.

The first ATP turbine installed in the Czech Republic was a 29 MW back-pressure steam turbine for a heat and power plant in České Budějovice, which replaced a turbine made in 1963. The contractual requirement was to use the foundations and space left by the old turbine, which had an output less than half of the new turbine. The replacement was preceded by rehabilitating the boilers and upgrading their output.

A 25 MW back-pressure turbine for the Nová Huť Heat and Power Plant. Swiss banks started to pay the legitimate heirs from so-called “sleeping accounts” on December 4, 1997.

The top prize at the Golden Bear Film Festival was awarded for Miloš Forman’s movie “The People Versus Larry Flynt” in February 1997.

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he new management of the Turbine Division focussed the attention of the sales and technical departments on modernisation of industrial power plants which were becoming obsolete. An emphasis was put on making proposals for modernising the heat and power plants in which old machines at the end of their useful lives could no longer perform their function and could not meet the requirements of availability, operating reliability and economy. The purpose of modernising was to improve technical and economic parameters compared to the original solution.

This was achieved by applying those new design elements and technological methods which progress had brought since the original installation in the areas of design and manufacture. The original basic machine parameters were maintained – pressure, temperature and flow of extraction and back-pressure steam, but the efficiency and output were increased, the control system features enhanced and the user-friendliness increased. The economic benefits of the modernisation programme are obvious if we compare the technical and economic parameters of the turbine before and after the modernisation.

An exhibition devoted to the period and reign of the Emperor Rudolph II, was the most significant cultural as well as social event of 1997. The exhibits were collected not only from all Czech museums and galleries but practically from all over the Europe.

Two 20 MW G &V condensing steam turbines were used in the modernisation programme of the Heat and Power Plant Ústí nad Labem. Both are deployed in continuous base-load service.

The team of professor Pavel Pafko carried out the first lung transplant in the Czech Republic at the Teaching Hospital in Motol on December 22, 1997.

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Combined Gas and Steam Turbine Cycles

The Euro was introduced in the countries of the European Monetary Union on January 4, 1999 for non-cash operations, while its introduction for cash operations was planned for January 1, 2002.

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n increasing emphasis on environmental protection has had a significant impact on the requirements made by clients in the power generation industry. More and more companies have started to prefer environmentally-friendly solutions using natural gas. For econo-mic reasons the winner is often a solution based on combined cycle.

iew of the Červený mlýn combined-cycle heat and power plant with a 24 MW back-pressure steam turbine with a controlled extraction. This plant represents a modern co-generation installation for the combined production of electricity and heat, based on the combustion of natural gas or light fuel oil. In either case, this is a very effective and environmentally-friendly method of combustion. An old coal-fired facility has been replaced by a modern plant, contributing to the reduction of noxious emissions and air pollution in the region.

The ATP Series turbines have proved themselves as being suitable for combined cycle plants. The single-shaft aggregate configuration has been very successful, where the generator is driven by a steam turbine at one end, and by a gas turbine at the other. If such a plant also utilises the extraction steam heat, the fuel energy utilisation can be as high as 88%.

STEAM TURBINE NATURAL GAS

V

Czech handicapped sportsmen and women returned home from the Nagano Winter Paralympics in 1998 with seven medals.

GENERATOR

FEED BATER TANK WITH DEAERATOR

HEAT RECOVERY STEAM GENERATOR

FUEL OIL

G NASA announced in March 1998, that its space probe Lunar Prospector revealed large deposits of water on the Moon.

GENERATOR

GAS TURBINE

Typical combined cycle – exhaust gases from the gas turbine are used in the boiler as heat to generate steam. The steam is then used in the steam turbine to generate additional power.

STEAM TO PROCESS

HEATING STEAM FEED BATER PUMPS

Gold Medal won at the 1998 Brno International Engineering Trade Fair

C

In 1998 American and Japanese scientists found the first evidence that neutrinos, very small particles smaller than an atom, have a mass.

Viagra, the drug supporting male potency, was brought on the market in 1998.

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ommunal waste has become a nightmare for civilisation. With the gradual enhancements of the communal waste incineration technologies and the resulting cleaner emissions, the interest to utilise the heat generated in these processes in power generation has been growing. Waste incineration boilers of various designs produce enough steam to be used in the generation of electricity and heat. Here too, the requirements for the design of the steam turbine are very high. The machines must have an adequate efficiency even at lower steam temperatures and with fluctuations in the volume of extraction caused by the special processes in which incinerators operate. Often the turbine must be located in a limited space. An increased emphasis is also put on the degree of automation. Sometimes the requirements are so extensive that the entire plant including the turbo-generator must be controlled remotely from another location. It is worth mentioning that it was particularly in this market segment that the Brno Engineering Company acquired clients from around the world. A rotor for an ATP2 turbine designed and made for a waste incineration plant in the United Kingdom was awarded a Gold Medal at the 1998 Brno International Engineering Trade Fair.

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mong unconventional projects which make use of this technology is a contract for a 55 MW steam turbine for a barge-mounted power plant that is anchored in the sea near the Indian city of Mangalore. The facility has four gas turbines, four waste heat boilers (HYUNDAI) and an ABB condensing steam turbine. To make its installation on the barge easier, the turbine is designed with an axial exhaust. The entire turbo-generator including accessories is mounted on a base-frame, which serves also as the oil tank for the integrated oil system.

Karel Loprais won the Paris-Dakar Rally in a Tatra truck in 1999 for the fifth time and he was ranked among the legends of this race.

The exhibition “Ten Centuries of Architecture”, held from April 5, 2001, presented all the great architectural styles in authentic interiors of the Prague Castle.

The Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary became members of NATO in 1998.

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ALSTOM Power he last years of the 20th Century, a period of growing globalisation, were characterised by mergers of large manufacturing enterprises. On March 23, 1999 two multinational corporations, ABB and ALSTOM, announced that they had decided to merge their power generation equipment manufacturing facilities into a single entity, each party holding a 50% share. The new corporation, ABB ALSTOM Power, became one of the largest manufacturers of power generation equipment in the world. In industrial steam turbines, the new company became the largest company in the world for total delieverd output. In the past 10 to 15 years, power generation has undergone significant changes. In the 1980s, mostly solid fuels were used and the steam power plants built had ever increasing output. Environmental protection became a necessary part of the technology. Liberalisation and privatisation of the electricity and heating markets have imposed new requirements on the manufacturers of power generation equipment by the plant operators. These are primarily shortened delivery times, complete output reliability and efficiency of the equipment supplied and new requirements in servicing and maintenance. Falling electricity prices also brought new pressure on the power generation equipment manufacturers, which can only be withstood by companies who are extremely efficient. The new company ABB ALSTOM Power managed to offer the new, dynamically- -developing Pierre Bilger, Chairman and CEO of ALSTOM market, a broad spectrum of products and solutions including a comprehensive service, effective research and development at a high level and capital self-sufficiency. And this still continues to apply after the next step, when in 2001, ALSTOM purchased ABB’s share in the joint venture and became the sole owner of the newly conceived giant among power generation equipment manufacturers – ALSTOM Power – incorporated directly into the ALSTOM organisational structure. The Brno-based Industrial Turbine Segment became one of the major suppliers of industrial steam turbines within the new corporation. The remaining three suppliers are Finspong in Sweden, Nuremberg in Germany and La Courneuve in France. Brno did not acquire this position by chance. It won the trust of the parent company thanks to its enormous technical and human potential, consistent restructuring, emphasis on quality and the good reputation and references, which it has gradually acquired on the markets of Western Europe, South-East Asia and North America. Within the ALSTOM Power Group, Brno became responsible for the Shortly after the ABB – ALSTOM merger was announced; worldwide market of steam turbines with a power output the Brno engineering company was visited by the Chairman and of 20 MW maximum. CEO of ALSTOM, Pierre Bilger.

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In 1997 the Brno Engineering Company started sponsoring Czech handicapped sportsmen and women and became the official sponsor of the Czech Paralympic Team. The basic philosophy of the Paralympic movement is the principle that the handicapped sportsmen and women should possess abilities, experience and equipment equal to their non-handicapped counterparts. Therefore they must perform well enough to get into the national team and undergo demanding qualification heats in order to participate in major international competitions. The sporting climax and dream of every handicapped sportsman and woman is to compete at the Paralympic Games or at the Deaflympics. The Paralympics history dates back to 1948, when the English neurosurgeon, Sir Ludwig Guttman, organised the International Wheelchair Games which were held at the same time as the London Olympics. The First Global Games, the predecessor of the Paralympics as we know them today, were held in 1960 in Rome. Since 1992 this top event has been organised by the International Paralympic Committee. The Czech Paralympic Committee was established a year later. Modern Paralympics are held in even years, always shortly after and at the same venue as Olympic Games. In odd years, the World Federation of the Deaf holds Deaflympics or the World Games of the Deaf, the beginnings of which date back to 1924. The principle idea behind the Paralympic movement appealed to the Brno Engineering Company: “We appreciate the efforts of the Czech Paralympic Committee to promote the Olympic ideas and emphasising the fact that in goal achievement there is no difference between people, as long as they attempt to reach their goals by their own hard work and perseverance, and observe the principle of fair play”. These were the words used by Dan Ëok, the ALSTOM Country President, to express the motives behind the corporation’s decision to support the Paralympic movement. In 1997, in the year the Company became a sponsor of the Paralympic movement, the Czech team won four gold medals at the Summer Deaflympics in Copenhagen.

Consolidated Manufacturing Programme

Bertrand Piccard from Switzerland and Brian Jones from the UK flew were the first people to fly around the globe in a hot air balloon in 19 days on March 20, 1999.

The German power group RWE presented a new communication technology Powerline on March 11, 1999, which enables the transmission of sound and data by using regular power distribution lines.

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hen ABB and ALSTOM Ener-gy merged their activities in 1999, there was a considerable overlap on the industrial steam turbine side. Therefore our specialists have spent a considerable amount of time and effort selecting the best of the ALSTOM Energy products and the best of the ABB products and amalgamating them into a single product range. What they have done is apply a selective approach, reducing

the number of turbines available from a group of 16 to a family of 6, covering 4 single casing and 2 dual-casing turbines, all of which are available in a number of configurations and module sizes. The turbines, called simply ST1- ST6, cover the full range of customer needs up to 100 MW range. The streamlined production programme leads to an increased level of standardisation, which has a positive impact on the cost, lead times and reliability of the turbines.

It was a historically-unique opportunity to be able to work with colleagues from sister ALSTOM companies within the Industrial Turbines Segment to develop a consolidated manufacturing programme. We can now meet and work together with colleagues who only a few years ago were our competitors. The Brno Engineering Company and its staff can not only utilise their own technical know-how from the co-operation, but also gain experience of how to become part of an effective, large, multinational corporation. Our previous integration in the ABB Group opened the door for us to the successful technology of high-speed steam turbines with gearboxes. Our current activities in the development tasks of the ALSTOM consolidated manufacturing programme suggest that the next development step in the industrial steam turbines will be high-speed steam turbines with multiple rotors. The choice of optimal speed allows investment costs per turbine to be minimised. These trends are reflected in the ST1 turbine series, which we are now helping to develop. Milan Kořista

Single casing turbines Direct Drive 2-pole Geared Drive 4-pole and Mechanical Drives

From left: Eduard Palíšek, Ivo Malý, Petr Hill, Stanislav Kubiš, František Michele

Package Package

Back pressure Condensing Extraction

Package

After 293 years people could observe an almost complete eclipse of the Sun in the Czech Republic on August 12, 1999. This phenomenon should next be visible from the Czech lands in 2135.

Bando di Argenta

E Dual casing turbines ST1

Dual casing turbines ST6

Scientists from NASA announced at the end of 2000, that the largest Jupiter’s moons, Ganymedes, has an ocean with salt water under the surface of the ice.

Two parts of the legendary Amber Chamber were returned to Russia at the end of April 2000. A Chest of Drawers and a part of the legendary mosaic were found in Germany and handed back to Petrograd.

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HP Geared HP HP Geared or Direct Drive LP Parallel or In-line arrangement

High pressure

Back pressure

Low pressure LP

High pressure

Back pressure

Condensing Extraction District heating

HP&LP

Geared GP and LP in overhang and in package

HP LP

Low pressure Condensing Extraction District heating

HP&LP

In Brno, the consolidated manufacturing programme meant primarily an opportunity to extend the range to include the ST1 turbine which was originally a product of the French ALSTOM. The ST1 Series are single-casing turbines for small outputs from 1 to 10 MW, and low capital investment. The Brno engineers also started participating in new development tasks, mainly concerning the ST1 Series.

nvironmental considerations in the countries of the European Union countries has had, of course, an impact also on the power generation industry. This has been reflected in the support of projects utilising renewable forms of energy which are generally regarded as the most environment-friendly forms of production. Such resources include the burning of biomass. It is the combustion of biomass which is used to generate steam that powers several turbines delivered by the Brno branch of ALSTOM. One of them is a 13 MW condensing steam turbine made for Bando di Argenta in Italy. This turbine was awarded a gold medal at the 2001 International Engineering Trade Fair in Brno.

The Czech hockey team became the world champions for the third time in row in 2001.

The Czech expedition “Hatun Mayu 99 – To the Sources of The Amazon River” made a significant find. It located two sources of the largest river in the world in June 1999, or more precisely of its upper stream Apurímac-Carhuasanta in the South Peruvian district of Arequipa.

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Brno turbines under the Siemens brand At the end of 20th century the French engineering company Alstom suffered into financial difficulties. The crisis which the company experienced mainly because of the bankruptcy of its main customer for cruise liners, resulted in the decision to sell key profitable divisions: the Industrial Steam Turbines Division, of which also the Brno turbine works formed a part, and the Transmission and Distribution Division. The German group Siemens AG and the Japanese company Hitachi showed interest in the Industrial Steam Turbines Division. Siemens evinced interest in purchase of the Brno machine works before, and on this second occasion in April 2003 the company was successful and so became owner not only of the Brno steam turbine plant, but also other sister companies in Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, Brazil and India. More than 500 employees of Alstom Power in Brno moved to employment in Siemens Power Generation (PG) group.

Information technology & Communication

Automation and Drives

Power

Transportation

Medical

Lightning

Power Generation PG

Oil&Gas and Industrial Applications PG I

Industrial Steam Turbines PG I2

Siemens AG – organizational structure

Turbine Service PG I1

Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery s.r.o., Brno

"This acquisition is a superb opportunity for us. Gained products and services perfectly complete our production program," emphasized Klaus Voges, PG group president. “This way we obtained leading position on the worldwide market of industrial energetics and compressor machinery. We especially count with good opportunities in the area of oil and gas exploitation. This acquisition substantially contributes to realization of our strategy to provide complete offer of products and solutions for customers around the world in industry sphere," added Voges. Klaus Voges – PG group president

Director of the subdivision PG I2, Dr. René Umlauft addressing the meeting of employees on the integration of the Brno works into Siemens.

Siemens purchased the division from Alstom for 1.1 billion Euro and the whole transaction proceeded in two steps. The first phase included taking over of production of small gas turbines with headquarters in Lincoln, Great Britain. The second phase included purchase of facilities for middle-sized gas and industrial steam turbines in Sweden, Germany, and Czech Republic. For this acquisition it was necessary to obtain approval from the EU antitrust committee and also from the office of the Attorney General of the United States of America. Because of these matters, the Dutch company Demag Delaval with headquarters in Hengelo became temporary owner of the mentioned companies. Therefore for a certain period of time the companies were presenting themselves under the name DDIT: Demag Delaval Industrial Turbomachinery. Siemens AG soon has became an owner of the Dutch company so the companies have became directly controlled by the German concern.

The coming of Siemens to the Brno machine works meant a turningpoint in its history. For the first time the premises on Olomoucká Street had to be divided between two independent companies. With strong lines tied departments of manufacturing, engineering, sales, project executions and service were now experiencing big changes. It was necessary to divide also so-called shared services like units of controlling, human resources and marketing, which up to now had served to all segments or divisions together. Step by step all the conditions necessary for the independent existence of two different firms in the same premises were created and improved. Based on a mutual agreement, new offices were created for Siemens by U rybníčku building after the reconstruction reconstruction of the U rybníãku building, which was ideal from the point of view of connecting with the adjacent turbine production hall. The production of new machines and turbine service were after the purchasing by Siemens completely modernized and also extended. The Brno machine works became an equal part of the worldwide group not only for its very important position in the field of customers relationships, but also in the field of cooperation with other Siemens PG units all around the world, especially with Goerlitz, Finspong and Nuremburg. Basically a modern company was born here, whose core is founded on quality proven over the years and tradition of production know-how. Dr. René Umlauft and Eduard Palíšek, MBA

The biggest Brno turbines

Siekierki turbine

May 1, 2003 The largest expansion to date of the European Union took place, extending the Union by 10 memberstates: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Basic technical data: 2 turbines, turbine output: 110 MW, speed: 3,000/min live steam: 127.5 bar, 535 °C, 450 t/h

21 June, 2003 SpaceShipOne became the first private spaceship to leave the atmosphere.

The heating plant Žeraň

Žeraň turbine On 27 April, 2004, a contract was signed for one of the biggest turbines ever made in Brno. The single cylinder steam turbine type VE 80 with radial exhaust and power output of 97MW has been successfully installed to replace two obsolete turbines in a heating plant in the suburbs of Warsaw – Žeraň. th

The Indian Ocean earthquake triggered tsunami on December 26, 2004, that killed more than 250,000 people.

Basic technical data: turbine output: 97 MW speed: 3,000/min live steam: 96 bar, 500 °C, 450 t/h 3x bleeds: 25.4 bar 15.6 bar 7.66 bar process steam bleed: 12 bar extraction: 1.2 – 2.5 bar exhaust: 0.25 – 0.6 bar steam from turbine is led into district heating condenser and raw water heater

The Žeraň rotor in the workshop.

February 27, 2005 In Japan, engineers finished blasting a 25.6 km long railway tunnel through a mountain in the Aomori prefecture. The tunnel is the longest in the world so far.

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Kelenfőld turbine An interesting turbine which came out of the Brno turbine works, was also a unit of large dimensions for Hungarian Kelenfőld. The turbo-generator set was a part of a project for reconstruction of a combined heat and power plant in Budapest. A single cylinder condensing turbine type SST-600 with an output of 49.9 MW with one regulated and two non-regulated extractions has also joined “the biggest” Brno turbines. The welded exhaust casing is one of the biggest that has ever been used for manufacture of steam turbines in Brno so far.

One year later another contract was signed for the same customer. This time it was for two turbines at once, each with output of 110 MW. The contract date for putting into operation is the end of the year 2008. Thus new turbines with a record output for Brno will replace original units from the 70’s and will increase the efficiency and reliability of the Siekierki heating plant.

April 2, 2005 Pope John Paul II. dies. On April 19 the Papal Conclave met and elected the new Pope Benedict XVI.

3D model of Siekierki project

In January 2006 the 4 Hills Tournament victory was for the first time tied between two competitors: a fourth victory for Janne Ahonen with Jakub Janda sharing the title by obtaining his first Tournament success.

Kelenfőld turbine the exhaust casing.

Turbine parameters: Turbine rotor weight: 31,600 kg overall lenght: 7,960 mm 5 carriers with 29 rows of blades

March 17, 2006 The Czech National Library purchased a facsimile of Latin translation of Chronicle of Dalimil at an auction in Paris for 300,000 Euro.

Czech politician Milada Horáková, who was executed after a communiststaged show trial in 1950 was posthumously awarded the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom by the U.S. Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, in a ceremony that took place at the Czech Embassy in Washington, November 14, 2006.

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January 14, 2005 The European Huygens probe successfully landed on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Certificate of Merit in Innovation Award

I

n the 2007 Innovation competition, the innovation of the turbine series SST300 was awarded a certificate of merit. The basic criteria in this competition are the technical level of the design, originality, standing on the market, effectiveness, and environmental impact. The turbine series innovation achieved excellent results in all assessed areas. The modular turbine series SST-300 offers a reliable and economically efficient solution for customers’ specific con-

ditions which is equivalent, as to efficiency, with “tailor-made” turbines without using standardization. After the innovation, 36 turbine alternatives can be assembled, differing in both their power and designation, by a combination of two unaltered turbine casing castings (see Fig. 1 and 2) with welded or cast outlet branches. Increasing this number of alternatives to another 72 was enabled by adding other types of input valve parts. As early as 2007, Siemens won a contract for the supply of an innovated turbine in the Brno refuse incineration plant of SAKO, a.s. Turbine SST-300 with a capacity of 22.7 MW.

February 16, 2005 NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced that due to the running strike the entire 2004-05 season was cancelled. It was the first time in American history that a professional sports competition had been cancelled due to disputes with trade unions.

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nother significant factor for the development of a new design of turbine casings was following the characteristics of all rotor sizes considered for this series. By meeting this criterion, the mechanical feasibility of the designed solution was guaranteed. If we

December 21, 2007 Nine countries including the Czech Republic joined the Schengen area.

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take into consideration that within each of the 36 variants differing, particularly, in the bearing distance there are partial variants of the size of the rotor’s foot diameter, the complex effect of the innovation on the entire product designated as SST-300 is evident.

January 2, 2008 oil prices rose to USD 100 per barrel and during the year it reached its historical maximum – over USD 140 per barrel.

Obtaining OHSAS 18001 certification

Major improvements

February 16, 2007 Šárka Záhrobská won the first medal in the history of the Czech Republic at the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Sweden

June 29, 2007 Apple started to sell the breakthrough iPhone.

• A change in the design of the original rigid cast turbine casing of the steam turbine series SST-300 for applications without or with a single controlled extraction. The previous maximum controlled admission steam parameters of 90 bar, 510°C were increased to 120 bar, 520°C. • Development of a completely new cast turbine casing for applications with two controlled extractions. This casing is also designed for the abovementioned increased admission steam parameters. Alternatively, the casing may be used for applications with five uncontrolled extractions (see Fig. 2). • The original alternative of double-seated control valves was supplemented with a single-seated alternative with increased efficiency.

1

2

In relation to the occupational health and safety policy, the company’s management decided to introduce and subsequently to have an Occupational Safety and Health system certified according to the international standard OHSAS 18001 (OHSAS = Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Specification). Apart from successful certification, the principal goal of this project was to create an efficient control system in this field. This system also includes the setting and fulfilling of targets resulting in minimizing risks and adverse impacts of working operations on employees’ health. Occupational health and safety was, in 2007, and still is the company’s priority.

February 25, 2008 Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard won the Oscar for the best song with their ballad Falling Slowly.

January 1, 2009 the Czech Republic took up the presidency of the Council of the European Union for half a year.

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Solar power tower

I January 20, 2009 Barrack Obama became the first Afro-American president of the United States of America.

n 2009, the manufacture of the historically first turbine for the solar power tower of the eSolar project was started. The basis of the eSolar technology is several thousands of relatively small mirrors (approx. 1 m in height) which are divided into subfields oriented either to the north or south. The sun’s rays of several fields of mirrors are reflected onto the solar tower which functions as a heating unit for steam generation (see Fig.). The condensed steam

is finally led back to the solar tower. For 49 MW of power, 16 solar towers are necessary, of which each has its north and south field and takes up a total area of 0.6 km². As in other solar-thermal power plants, the basis is a field with regularly distributed mirrors. However, in this technology it is not necessary to use oil which would be heated by solar energy and subsequently used as the heat energy source for steam generation.

June 25, 2009 Michael Jackson, the American singer and composer, died at the age of 50.

February 14, 21 and 24, 2010 Martina Sáblíková won two gold medals and one bronze medal in speed skating at the Olympic Games in Vancouver, thereby becoming the most successful Czech sportswoman in the history of the Winter Olympic Games.

April 10, 2010 a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft crashed near Smolensk and, among others, the Polish president Lech Kaczyński died in the crash.

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Changes in the production hall In connection with increasing the production capacity of the Brno plant and the change in the worldwide structure of Siemens, there has been a significant increase in investment in production since 2007. Not even through the economic crisis, which hit the global markets in 2009, did long-term investments end. Just in the financial year 2009/2010 investments amounted to approximately CZK 140 mil. The production hall obtained many new machines – horizontal milling and boring machines and a carousel. The new automatic welding machine enabled the manufacture of turbines with welded rotors which are especially in demand for service projects. The first successfully welded rotor is the low-pressure rotor from the Vřesová project. Modern machining centres also made it possible to produce blades for internal combustion (gas) turbines. Notionally, the plant resumes the production of internal combustion turbines which started there after World War II and was terminated in 1994 (a total of 406 turbines were supplied). Since 2009, blades for the compressors of internal combustion turbines SGT100, SGT-300 and SGT400 (see Fig.) have been made in Brno and they are further used for the manufacture of turbines in the affiliated company in Lincoln.

April 14, 2010 The eruption of a volcano in Iceland beneath the Eyjafjallajökull glacier caused a multiple-week interruption of air transport across the entire northwest of Europe.

April 20, 2010 The Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana. The subsequent escape of oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico has caused the largest ecological disaster in the history of oil extraction.

May 23, 2010 The Czech ice-hockey team won the World Championships after five years by beating Russia 2:1 in the final.

Supporting S. K. Hobit The company supports the club of basketball players in wheelchairs, S. K. Hobit. The Siemens Basketball League for Wheelchair Users with international participation has been played for three years thanks to Siemens contributions. Our support of this sport did not go unnoticed. The company received the SIT award for extraordinary support of basketball in wheelchairs from Zdeněk Škaroupka, the manager and member of the board of directors of the League for the Rights of Wheelchair Users at a gala evening. The award is represented by a sculpture of interwoven hands that embodies the award.

Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery received an award from the Wheelchair Association for its long-term support for Czech wheelchair basketball. It has been a partner of S.K. Hobit club and Siemens Wheelchair Basketball League since 2007.

June 6, 2010 Ladislav Smoljak, the Czech film director, screenwriter, playwright and actor and one of the fathers of Jára Cimrman, died at the age of 78.

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References 1901–2010 TURBINE DELIVERIES ACCORDING TO SITE COUNTRY 1901–2010

Selection of interesting projects

TURBINE DELIVERIES ACCORDING TO SITE COUNTRY 1901–2010

Multi-stage steam turbines with the power output above 1 MW

Multi-stage steam turbines with the power output above 1 MW

(Number of supplied units/total output)

(Number of supplied units/total output)

Poland

EUROPE No. of units MW Czech Republic and Slovak Republic 824 6,268 CIS (Russia before 2001) 396 2,506 Poland 232 2,302 Romania 58 806 Bulgaria 21 507 Hungary 42 246 Germany 45 183 Austria 129 435 Yugoslavia 26 162 Finland 7 261 Sweden 11 231 France 3 18 Switzerland 1 11 Italy 21 142 Belgium 5 48 Netherlands 1 14 United Kingdom 6 59 Ireland 7 14 Spain 5 70 Portugal 5 47 Greece 2 14 Latvia 1 2 Lithuania 2 24 Belorus 3 52 Serbia 2 16 Russia (after 2002) 20 712 1,875 15,150 NORTH AMERICA USA Canada

MIDDLE AND SOUTH AMERICA Cuba Brazil Argentina Peru Mexiko

No. of units 22 6 28

No. of units 5 5 2 4 3 19

MW 496 151 647

MW 81 21 44 40 94 280

Russia

Canada Czech Republic

Iran Korea

USA

NEAR EAST AND AFRICA Egypt Syria Turkey Morocco Israel Libya Guinea Sri Lanka Qatar Tanzania

Morocco

Peru

New Zealand Egypt

Australia

MULTI-STAGE TURBINES 1903–2010

MULTI-STAGE TURBINES 2000–2010

(COUNT/OUTPUT)

(COUNT/OUTPUT)

Textile and Rubber Industry 710 pcs/3,249 MW

Food Industry 245 pcs/896 MW

Pulp and Paper Industry 122 pcs/104 MW

Metalurgy and Mining 449 pcs/3,729 MW

Others 237 pcs/908 MW

Heating Plant 30 pcs/1,267 MW Incineration Plant 17 pcs/263 MW

Biomass 50 pcs/1,402 MW

Food Industry 6 pcs/144 MW Power Plant 796 pcs/4,388 MW

Heating Plant 220 pcs/3,382 MW Petrochemical and Refinery 411 pcs/4,331 MW

Multi-stage steam turbines – 2,632 units, total output – 20,228 MW Single-stage steam turbines – 2,079 units, total output – 555 MW

Power plant 68 pcs/1,797 MW

Pulp and Paper Industry 26 pcs/777 MW Others 11 pcs/192 MW

MIDDLE AND EAST ASIA India China Japan Macao Mongolia Korea Nepal Iran Iraq Afghanistan Pakistán Thailand Cambodia Indonesia Brunei Vietnam Myanmar Malaysia Taiwan Singapur Azerbaijan

AUSTRALIA New Zealand Australia Fiji

No. of units 21 14 13 3 2 2 2 2 3 1 63

MW 240 213 249 36 26 3 2 9 106 36 920

No. of units 90 110 1 1 3 9 2 23 1 1 8 7 4 8 2 6 2 4 5 1 1 289

MW 816 1,928 42 49 3 327 2 346 10 12 50 167 20 209 26 10 4 121 136 27 42 4,347

No. of units 1 8 1 10

MW 13 238 9 260

Petrochemical Metalurgy and Mining 13 pcs/358 MW and Refinery 29 pcs/854 MW

Total no. of supplied steam turbines – 4,711 units Total output 20,783 MW

Delivered to 66 countries

Top management DIRECTORS OF THE FACTORY/TURBINE DIVISION/TURBINE SEGMENT Ing. Böhm Jan Ing. Vinkler Slavomil Ing. ·otola Franti‰ek Ing. PeÀáz Václav Ing. Tuãek Lubomír Ing. Vinick˘ Jaroslav Ing. Hájek Alois Ing. Vinick˘ Jaroslav Ing. Palíšek Eduard, Ph.D., MBA Ing. Štěpán Vladimír, MBA

ING. VLADIMÍR ŠTĚPÁN, MBA (* 3-13-1971) He studied at Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Engineering. He started his professional career by implementing investment units in the petrochemical and chemical industry. He has been working for Siemens since 2000. In September 2007, he became the business manager of Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery s.r.o. He was appointed the general manager of the company on 1 October 2009. He studied Process Engineering at Brno University of Technology. Later, he obtained his MBA title at the Economy University in Prague. He started his career in Project Execution dpt., and then he worked in Engineering and Business Development. Since 2011, he started working as a Head of Service Division in Brno.

ING. PETR HILL, MBA (* 6-23-1954)

ING. JOSEF MĚKUTA, MBA (* 9-6-1962)

Mr. Hill graduated in Aircraft Design from University of Defence in Brno. He has worked for the company since 1981. He participated significantly in the development of ATP turbines, worked as a head of development of ATP tubines, then as head of turbine service, and currently he is the company’s Engineering Director.

ING. JAROSLAV MOŠAŤ (* 12-25-1964)

ING. ZBYNĚK UHER (* 9-18-1964) Mr. Uher graduated in Chemical and Food Machinery Design from VUT in Brno. He joined the company as a Quality Manager in 2002. Since 2003 he has worked as company’s Quality and Operation Services Director.

– 3/1970 – 3/1975 – 8/1981 – 3/1987 – 8/1990 – 12/1990 – 10/1992 – 3/1996 – 9/2009 – now

Note: Between 1945 – 1958, PBS had a Technical Section, which was managed by a Chief Engineer, and a Production Section, which was managed by a Production Manager – there were no turbine and boiler sections.

ING. VIKTOR ČERMÁK , MBA (* 4-24-1975)

Mr. Mosat graduated in Heating and Nuclear Machinery and Devices from VUT in Brno. He has worked for the company since 1988. He launched his career in engineering, then he worked in the purchasing department and project management. Later, he worked as Purchasing Manager and currently he is a Project Execution Director.

8/1958 3/1970 3/1975 6/1981 4/1987 9/1990 1/1991 11/1992 4/1996 10/2009

ING. ERIK FEITH (* 21-7-1976) JAN ZDRAŽIL (* 30-7-1965) He graduated from the Faculty of Education at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University (Masaryk University). He worked in HR management and external relations for Toray, a Japanese company, for 7 years and then as an HR manager in Poclain, an engineering company. In 2008, he took the office of the manager of the Personnel Department in the company. Since the autumn of 2009, he has been in the same position as an external employee of the regional company Siemens, s.r.o.

He completed Accounting and Financial Company Management at the University of Economics in Prague. He started working for the company in 2008 in the position of economic manager which he still holds.

ING. ZDENĚK PETERKA (* 12-12-1966) Mr. Peterka graduated in Heating and Nuclear Machinery and Devices from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at VUT in Brno. He has worked for the company since 1994. From the beginning he worked as Project Manager and since 2007 he is the company’s Manufacturing Director.

Mr. Mekuta graduated in Foreign Trade Economics from University of Economics in Prague. He worked on head positions in sales and marketing department in CKD Blansko Inc. He has worked for the company since 1996. At first he worked as a Head of Gas Turbines Department, later he worked as a Substituting Managing Director. Since 2002 he has worked as company’s Sales Director.

MILAN RICHTER (* 1-11-1935) He graduated from a high school of economics and industrial high school. He has been working in the company since 1959. He worked in planning and management of boiler production, later as a manager of the boiler production management. In 1984 he started working as a manager of economic divisions of Engineering Plant, Boiler Division and Supplier-Engineering Division. In 1996 he started working as the controlling manager and then as the financial manager in the Turbine Division. At present, he is an advisor and member of the company management.

History and current development of steam turbine production in Brno Text: Editorial team from SIT Brno: František Michele, Vladimír Štěpán, Lenka Kuchtová, Tomáš Repka, Eduard Palíšek, Donald Haswell, Sylva Pešková, Luboš Ptáček, Petr Hill, Lubomír Sádlík, Jaroslav Vinický, Pavel Bartoněk, Miroslav Boršek, Alois Hájek, Jaroslav Hrubý, Markéta Javůrková, Renata Chybová, Milan Kořista, Stanislav Kubiš, Ivo Malý, Jiří Nos, Marta Oklešťková, Regina Richardson, Karel Brunner. Photography: Authors’ archive, František Michele’s private archive, Moravský zemský archiv in Brno, Alstom archive, Siemens archive, PHOTODISK Trilabit, s. r. o. studio photo-bank, Trilabit, s. r. o. studio archive, Asociace PCC, spol. s r. o. archive, ČTK – pages 12–93 (photos used in side columns). Graphic design and print: studio Trilabit, s. r. o. Editor-in-chief: Lenka Kuchtová © 2010 Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery s.r.o., Olomoucká 7/9, 618 00 Brno, Czech Republic. All rights reserved.

3th revised and extended edition

ISBN: 978-80-902681-3-5