Foley Equipment Co., the
Wichita, Kansas, U.S.A.-based
Caterpillar dealer, has opened a
127,000 sq.ft. ( 11,800 m2) gas
compression engine rebuilding
operation at a new facility just
outside of Wichita. Operating officially as Foley Rebuild Center,
the plant focuses on gas engine
rebuilding, as well as drilling engines, industrial engines, power
generation and off-highway
equipment engines. The center
also rebuilds components such
as transmissions and differentials, mostly from Cat equipment.
NEW GAS COMPRESSION ENGINE REBUILD OPERATION
Foley Rebuild Center Rebuilds Engines for Compressor Drive, Drilling, Industrial Use,
Power Generation and Off-Highway Equipment Along with Driveline Components
Foley Equipment Co., the Wichita,
Kansas, U.S.A., Caterpillar dealer has
opened a gas compression engine rebuilding operation at a new facility just
outside of Wichita. The 127,000 sq.ft.
( 11,800 m2) facility, operating officially
as Foley Rebuild Center, began rebuilding engines over a year ago. While it is
focused on gas engine rebuilding, Foley
Rebuild Center also rebuilds engines for
drilling, industrial use, power generation
and off-highway equipment, and rebuilds components such as transmissions and differentials, mostly from Cat
equipment. Ken Davis, engine product
support sales manager for Foley, said
about 25% of the work done at the new
facility is nongas compression related,
depending on the health of the various
markets served by Caterpillar and Foley.
An adjacent 29,000 sq.ft. (2700 m2) facility repairs equipment financed by
Caterpillar Financial. That operation
then resells those machines (both Cat
and other brands) into the used equipment market.
Foley Equipment’s gas compression
engine rebuild history began in the
late 1990s in the Hugoton Natural Gas
Area in western Kansas. Foley had an
established irrigation gas engine service operation in that region, but the
business “skyrocketed,” Davis said, as
the Hugoton field matured and pressures declined. As the pressures
dropped, both larger and smaller
horsepower gas compression engines,
ranging from Cat’s 3300 to 3600 series,
began to be installed in the region.
“The growth in the gas compression
market came just about the time our
irrigation business, because of lower
water tables, was slowing down,”
Davis said. “We started doing mostly
repair, maintenance and warranty
work on the gas compression en-
gines. But with those units running
24/7, it didn’t take us long, about five
to six years after the first new units
were installed, before we began doing
engine rebuilds, mostly at our Dodge
City, Kansas, facility. “But we were
limited in both people and facility size
as to how many engines we could re-
build there,” he said, “so we began to
look for a larger facility to rebuild gas
compression engines.”
That led to the start-up of Foley
Rebuild Center north of Wichita in
Park City, which is now a complete
rebuild operation capable of handling
small 3304 to large 3616 model Cat
engines and includes a pair of 1500
and 5000 hp (1118 and 3728 kW) en-
gine dynamometers.
The airflow in the new air-conditioned Foley Rebuild operation runs
from assembly toward teardown,
meaning the dirtier inspection and engine dismantling operations are downstream from assembly and testing.
That attention to detail is evident
throughout, and as a result Foley
Rebuild Center has been awarded
Caterpillar’s five-star contamination
control designation.
Engines that enter the center are
high-pressure steam washed in one of
two bays to remove paint and debris.
Depending on the engine, some units
are aluminum shot blasted, which,
Davis said, makes the engine cleaner
and thus easier to tear down.
The engines go through a full failure analysis process, followed by a
complete, rebuild vs. replace, assessment. The teardowns are all done on
a grated floor, removing all oil and
debris from the shop.
Disassembled components go to
one of four rotating wash cabinets,
which can spray 185°F (85°C) cleaning
solution at up to 175 psi ( 12. 1 bar).
The cleaned components are inspected, going through a Magnaflux
magnetic particle inspection system to
find cracks in the blocks, crankshafts
and cylinder heads. Davis said every
crankshaft undergoes this process and
then is polished.
Jon Robinson, vice president of
Foley Rebuild Center, said quality in
people and work was the focus from
the beginning of the new operations.
“Quality beyond question is our goal,”
Robinson stated. “We measure technicians on quality and efficiency, individually with monthly reports to ensure we add value to our customers.”
Foley Rebuild does some diesel
