Lately I've been working in a few projects were our customer uses the Woodward 505 control in their steam turbines.

Does anyone here know a company in the US-Canada-Mexico area that provides training for this equipment?

I appreciate the help.

 

Robert,

Actually, the 505 manual by Woodward is not a bad manual at all. And most of the problems I've run into on 505 installations call into one of two categories: incorrect contact sense (NO, NC) specified by the application/design engineer, and problems determining control valve PID values--which can be a problem for a LOT of control systems.

The biggest complaint I have about the 505 manual is that it does not come out and state whether or not a contact needs to be open to trip/close to run or not. I don't know how some of these get through FAT (Factory Acceptance Testing)--actually I do; they just put jumpers in to get the thing to work and let the field people sort out "the details." Fortunately, there aren't a lot of discreet inputs, so it doesn't take very long to sort out what needs to be what.

As for PID settings, some people who are more familiar with Woodward controls are better than others at determining and fine-tuning PID settings. But, I find it's mostly a trial-and-error process. The biggest problem I run into in getting a control valve to be stable is if a pneumatic actuator is used on a steam valve. That's just begging for trouble, but people don't want to use hydraulic actuators on small turbines these days.

Another problem with determining PID settings can be caused by steam supply issues--not enough steam to handle transient conditions, especially on smll turbines. Combine this with a pneumatic actuator on a control valve and even the venerable Woodward 505 can't be made to be very stable.

So, read the manual very well. Make notes. Woodward also has a lot of publications that explain things like Droop speed control (though that document is bad!) and Cascade Control, so have a look through their website for more information.

Lastly, if you call Woodward they are fairly helpful. You should do your homework before you call, though. And you need to be able to tell them what the problem is you are experiencing and have some actionable data (trends from a DCS; etc) to get the best help (though that's true of any tech support organization--the more hard data you can supply the better!).

Sorry; I haven't heard of anyone besides Woodward that offers training, but really, the manual is pretty good.

Perhaps if you have some specific questions about the 505 you could ask them here. Tell us what you did or did not understand in the manual when you were researching the issue and you'll likely get the best answer.

 

Any of the Woodward Central Distributors (CD's) can provide training on the 505. A list of CD's are located on the Woodward website

There are regularly scheduled classes through out the year at different locations. The link to training on the Woodward website is http://www.woodward.com/producttraining.aspx

Byron Broussard
[email protected]