In line boring or machine bores of large items of stationery plant that cannot be easily removed from site for repair such as large diesel engine bedplates, cylinder blocks, steam, gas and hydro casings, stator frames, coupling hole aligning and line boring and other major items of plant that have worn or  are damaged to a degree that requires repair.

In-Situ Machining Solutions (UK) Ltd are an on board, on site precision machining company serving a wide range of industries around the world on a 24 hour, 7 day a week working programme as required by our customers.

View of machining in progress		Precision line boring to guide vane location bores of a hydro turbine unit
Line boring of all main bearing pockets on the S.S. Waverley

In-Situ Machining Solutions (UK) Ltd engineering team are fully versed in the production of equipment necessary to undertake all forms of portable line boring activities and most of the equipment to cover this discipline of work have to be designed, produced and built in house. It is found that these boring machines perform more effectively than ones bought ?off the shelf? and are tailored more to the specific needs of the machinery operated by our customers. The transportable line boring machines the company has are made to rigorous standards in terms of accuracy, this in combination with our highly motivated and skilled workforce presents customers with the confidence required to undertake high precision on-site, in place line boring projects of important major items of production equipment.

An indication of work undertaken using the combined manning skills and precision equipment would be the machining of diesel engine bedplate main bearing bore lines whether individual or the full line of bores have to be machined due to damage caused by crankshaft failure, over speeding, poor maintenance or old age.

Machining is carried out in conjunction with an alignment technique, laser or optical and is essential to the success of the project. Where main bearing bores are worn and tolerances outside the OEM?s design parameters, bores can be repaired using a variety of procedures to re-instate them back to standard size. These can take the form of a pre-machine metal spray and final machining to design size. Another way in which the bores can be refurbished would be to machine the main bearing bores to an oversize and introduce a sleeving system, the sleeve would be secured to the parent bedplate

using a series of ?snap off? special screws. There would be an allowance left in the bore for final machining to design size. Another method would be to electroplate the pre-machined bore and finally machined to design size, although rarely used, nevertheless a repair option.

In the event that OEM?s provide oversize shell bearing, this would be a simpler option than the procedures aforementioned. This method in our experience is rare as OEM?s prefer to operate machines with standard parts.

Prior to any line boring taking place, machining of the horizontal and vertical locations for bearing cap fit may have to be undertaken in the event that these areas are fretted or worn due to overheating. Metal stitching may also have to be carried out if overheating of the bearing bores has caused thermal cracks to occur. These are usually found in the bedplate castings and can be remedied by means of the advanced stitching system that the company has great success in using.

More often than not new or ?green? bearing caps are provided by the OEM to replace the old caps which are normally scrapped and impractical to repair. All work and procedures associated with engine repairs are fully agreed with the diesel engine makers before commencement and are issued with a full report on completion of the work. Other work benefiting from our line boring systems are associated with the refurbishing of turbo machinery components such as turbine casing gland and diaphragm bores, these due to thermal stressing and many years of ?stop start? use become out of radial and axial tolerance and as a result, efficiency is lost. This also applies to turbo machinery valve equipment which can also be remedied using one of our boring systems.

There are many other line boring applications where cost and time savings in all industries around the world can be beneficial.

Customer List

Rolls Royce, MAN Diesel, Vosper Thorneycroft, A&P Group, Occidental Oil, Shell Oil, Canadian Nexen, Maersk Shipping, Stena Line, Converteam, Alstom, British Energy, Lafarge Industries, General Electric etc.

Many of the named companies above consider In-Situ Machining Solutions (UK) Ltd as their preferred on-site machining contractor.

Please contact us if you have an on-site or on board machining requirement. We would be happy to quote and advise accordingly.