Pioneer: Proprietary Process Page

Our Proprietary, Patent-pending Process for Babbitting to Copper and Copper-chrome (Including "Cupaloy") Bearings:

If you’re operating a Siemens or Hyundai 501 combustion turbine, or any machine containing bearings with babbitt bonded to copper or a copper-chrome alloy, (often referred to by the trade name, "Cupaloy"), we have important news for you. We’ve developed a proprietary, patent-pending process to achieve a babbitt bond that will withstand elevated temperatures over long periods of time without becoming brittle and failing.

Embrittlement is a potential catastrophic problem found in babbitt/copper and babbitt/copper-chrome alloy bearings, particularly in Siemens and Hyundai 501 combustion turbines. It is not detectable by ultrasonic testing at the time of manufacture, much less at the time of repair.

Our process has been approved by Siemens (qualifying us to manufacture new 501 combustion turbine "Cupaloy bearings" for Siemens and Hyundai).

Without such a process, a shop could repair your babbitt/copper, or copper-chrome bearing and obtain excellent ultrasonic test results. Yet, an accelerated operational exposure test (which we’ve conducted on numerous destructive test samples) would most likely reveal that the babbitt bond becomes brittle and easily separates from the copper-chrome alloy backing.

This dramatically illustrates the potential danger of sending your bearings to repair shops with little know-how but the "cheapest price," or to shops which have never been asked to help an OEM investigate and solve a technical, metallurgical problem. That’s why we say, "We’re not just another rebabbitting shop."

For the incremental additional amount we’ll charge to employ our process (which costs us more time and money), you’ll gain peace of mind knowing that you did everything you could to prevent a catastrophic failure of the babbitt bond. This is another example of the benefit you gain from Pioneer working hand-in-hand with Siemens and other fine O.E.M.s.