Jay Zaffino, Sept. 30, 2024 | Burns & McDonnell is an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm with multiple divisions that cover oil, gas, chemicals, and power, as well as other areas of general industry. I am a Rotating Equipment Specialist in our oil, gas and chemical practice, and I am an MLA II certified through ICML.
Our power division specializes in power generation. One of their clients was considering purchasing two existing wind farms. One farm consisted of 50 wind turbines, and the other consisted of 165 wind turbines. Before they purchased the wind farms, the client asked our power division to help them ensure the wind turbines were in good condition. As proof of the condition, they offered the grease and oil analyses from all of the wind turbines. However, the energy group did not have the in-house expertise to interpret what these lubrication reports were saying.
Value-Added Service
I was contacted by our power division due to my experience with rotating equipment and my MLA II certification, and they asked me to review the lubrication reports. Upon completion of my analysis, I was able to give a full report on which turbines did not show signs of concern, as well as what actions should be taken on those turbines that showed out-of-spec lubrication for grease and/or oil.
The power group presented these findings to the client, and they were able to proceed with their purchase. My certification had given credibility to my reports and analysis. Although this type of work is not our “typical” work, it made for a happy customer, and that client continues to work with Burns & McDonnell on much larger projects today.
At Burns & McDonnell our goal is to make our clients successful. ICML certification is one of the ways we were able to help make this client successful.
