Our Capabilities: Facilities, Equipment and Services

We service our global customer base from our industry accredited facilities in the North East of the UK. With over 135,000 sq ft, ideally suited to the repair, maintenance and life extension of electrical rotating machines, we have the capability and capacity to deliver planned maintenance contracts and ad hoc emergency repairs.

From bespoke testing facilities to specialist coil manufacturing and winding areas, our world class facilities demonstrate commitment to quality and service. You can be assured that your electro mechanical assets, large and small, are in the right place.

Find out more information on our capabilities and facilities below:

Facilities

Houghton International is headquartered at the Ronnie Mitten Works in Newcastle upon Tyne. This facility encompasses over 120,000 sq ft of purpose built engineering space, ideally located for national and global transport links.
The Ronnie Mitten Works houses everything needed for the in-house repair, maintenance and life extension of electro mechanical assets, including in-house coil manufacturing facilities, a dedicated winding bay, fully fitted machine shop, and pump and motor load test facilities.
Our adjacent Large Machine Shop offers 40-tonne craneage and 13 metre working height, with 15,000 sq ft dedicated to larger machines and specialist projects.
We also offer a range of storage options for customer equipment to be utilised when needed and as part of our service exchange contracts.

Equipment

Our facilities encompass a wide range of specialist equipment for end-to-end in-house capability, including:

– 50 tonne extraction press
– 50 tonne vertical press
– 300 tonne horizontal press
– 250 tonne extraction press
– MIG welding machine
– Automated TIG welding machines
– Automated undercutting machines
– Hexagon Arm for 3D measurement and scanning
– 3D CAD design capability
– Balancing machines – up to 10 tonne
– Multiple cranes – up to 40 tonne
– BTU band tension unit
– Vacuum Pressure Impregnation (VPI) – epoxy resin
– Burn off stove – 2.5m x 2m x 2m
– Large drying / curing oven – 3.5m x 2m x 3m
– 2.2m² 220⁰C drying / curing ovens (2 of)
– AWA 12kV Baker test unit (2 of)
– PJ surge tester (2 of)
– Tan Delta tester
– Partial Discharge tester
– Lathes (up to 3.2m between centres)
– Vertical and horizontal milling machines with table area up to 1830 x 380mm
– Surface grinder – 18″ x 6” chuck
– Slotter – up to 8″ stroke
– Radial arm drill – 1050mm under chuck
– 1400mm arm radius
– Plasma cutter
– Metal spraying equipment
– Mag base drill

Investment in latest machinery not only continually improves quality, it provides key critical specialist resource – that improves automation, throughput and enhanced capacity.

Services

We service and repair rotating electrical machines, which covers anything from a small piece of industrial automation that would power a production conveyor line, through to a large generator for a utility company, a fan used in the automotive industry, the propulsion powering a train or shipping, oil rig and power station generators.
As the leading repair company in the North East of England, we operate a 24-hour emergency service as one of our core services. However, we prefer to sit down with our customers, understand their needs and help them to tailor a maintenance regime that matches with their budget and production schedules. In doing so, we can develop a commercial model that helps our customers understand their costs, reduce the emergency outages and work to prevent costly breakdowns.
Many of our customers have adopted this preventative approach to maintenance. We use a combination of state-of-the-art condition monitoring equipment combined with our expertise and our customers’ intimate plant knowledge to identify the major risk areas and strategise to minimise the cost of unplanned failures.

Testing

Motor testing capabilities
We have invested significantly in test equipment to allow for a more comprehensive range of electrical and mechanical tests to be offered to our customers:
Dynamic load testing
800 amps incoming supply, giving us the option of using a 3.3 / 6.6 or 11kV transformer to test a wide range of electro mechanical rotating machinery, using a 300 amps / 280 kVA regulator transformer
AC inverter rated at 250kW 300 amps
Baker test for windings up to 12kV, which can run a complete cycle of tests to ensure the integrity of all motor windings
AC regulator 0-415v 110 amps
2 DC supplies offering 360 excitation volts and 440 armature volts
Motor alternator load test facility with DC voltages from 675v to 1050v
AC resistive load bank to 60 kVA
We use Omicron and Megger Test equipment to fully comply with IEC standards, testing for:
Insulation Resistance (IR)
Polarisation index (PI)
Resistance checks
Continuity checks
Baker surge tests
Hi-pot / flash test
Capacitance and power/dissipation factor (tan delta)
Partial Discharge
Significant investment has also been made in our site services test facilities. Our engineers are equipped to undertake an extensive range of tests which far exceed the traditional Megger test to diagnose a motor’s condition.
Boasting full load testing capabilities, we perform such tests on electro mechanical assets to determine behaviour under peak load conditions. Can be facilitated via partner network as required.

Pump testing capabilities
Operating an array of specialised testing facilities, each pump is dynamically load tested, and a full performance test curve is provided prior to dispatch to confirm optimum performance and provide engineers with a datum to work from when installing the pump.
Our dedicated test areas include:
Small/medium test rig: full load testing up to 500kW, flow up to 10,000 igpm, + 2,700 M3/Hr and heads up to 10,000 ft, 150 Bar and 2170 PSI
Large test rig: bespoke testing facility for high flows that can be customised to specific customer requirements. We also partner with a local dry dock to test larger pumps, submersible and vertical, up to 11kV
Net Positive Suction Head tests can be carried out in house and our hydrostatic pressure test rig can test up to 250 bar

HV coil testing capabilities
All coils produced by us meet the relevant electrical standards, such as BS EN 60034, BS EN 50209 and IEEE 1553 & 1043 and our in-house testing facility offers the following routine testing procedures:
Surge comparison or turn to turn test (2 U_N) + 1000
Tan δ / Tip Up
Hi-pot (AC and DC flash) test (2 U_N + 1000)1.2
Lamination test
Partial discharge
Voltage endurance
Thermal cycling
We can also test to customers specification as required.