How to Recover Corroded Retaining Rings

Industry has moved to adopting 18/18 as its latest ‘standard’ steel for retaining rings. These high quality steels are fully stainless to prevent SCC, but are not fully corrosion resistant and Quartzelec have found incidents where corrosion has proven to cause critical damage. This article discusses how smart engineering studies and considered decisions could salvage retaining rings which otherwise would be scrapped.

When Quartzelec has been contracted to perform generator major overhauls including the removal of rotor retaining rings, we have found that the industry standard stainless 18/18 material, under certain conditions will corrode. This in turn could lead to fatigue cracking and increase the risk of Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) even in 18/18 steel. SCC (in particular) has in the past been known to cause catastrophic generator failure or at a minimum, has extended planned shutdown times, to enable repair work.

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