美国本土变压器老大宣布新建第七座工厂（主变）

弗吉尼亚变压器公司宣布计划在阿拉巴马州马斯尔肖尔斯建造一座占地 60 万平方英尺的新制造工厂，这是该公司在北美持续扩张计划的一部分。

这家新工厂将位于科尔伯特县的绍尔斯研究航空园，预计全面投产后将创造约1100个就业岗位。据该公司称，该工厂将生产2兆伏安至500兆伏安的各种电力变压器，并将成为弗吉尼亚变压器公司在北美的第七个生产基地。

该项目包括一条由阿拉巴马州“发展阿拉巴马”计划支持的专用铁路支线、自动化仓储系统、数字化制造工具以及一个现场培训中心。项目计划立即开工建设，预计将于2028年1月开始投产。

此次扩建与该公司位于佐治亚州林肯市的工厂正在进行的扩建工程同时进行，预计到 2027 年 3 月，该工厂的装机产能将增加 50%。

弗吉尼亚变压器公司首席执行官普拉巴特·贾恩在一份声明中表示，这项投资反映了与重工业、采矿业、电网扩建、能源基础设施和数据中心相关的不断增长的需求。

包括阿拉巴马州州长凯·艾维在内的州和地区官员对这一消息表示欢迎，并强调了该项目预计将对该地区的经济产生影响，并创造长期就业机会。

6 World-Class Operations

The headquarters for our corporation is located a few miles away from the picturesque Blue Ridge Parkway in Roanoke, VA. Designed and constructed specifically to produce power transformers, the 145,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is state-of-the-art.

In December 2013, a new facility was developed 11 miles from the main plant in Troutville, where the tank fabrication, sandblasting, and paint process were relocated. The tank fabrication plant is equipped with a welding robot that delivers leak-free welds, downdraft sandblasting booth for safety, and an SP-10 finish per SSPC standards for premium paint adhesion. The paint system is an epoxy primer on an activated surface and a topcoat of polyurethane baked to a hard finish to prevent rusting. The plasma table has been fitted with an etching gun to mark the location of all accessories, thus eliminating missed parts. The cross ventilation keeps the air free of weld fumes for the safety of personnel. The tank walls are aligned with a laser to ensure uniform clearance of the coils from the tank wall. Dye penetrant and particle leak-checking technology are used for quality assurance.

All tank fabrication facilities were equipped with these improvements in 2013. The combined capacity of all plants is more than 1500 tanks per year. The teams are proud to work in a clean and safe factory with a Mod Factor of 0.9 – better than the industry standard.

The vapor-phase drying system was installed in 2015 at Roanoke to achieve optimum insulation dryness. The VPD system is automated; technicians can download the process parameters to their cell phones. It allows for two transformers to be processed simultaneously and achieves a vacuum level of .25 torr. A second core cutting machine was installed in 2015 to increase capacity and eliminate the possibility of a single point of failure.

The machine cuts a 26-inch-wide core; the edge burr level is typically less than 20 microns. This cutting process decreases power and eddy loss while also reducing sound level by 2 dB.

The core and coil assembly are laser-aligned to ensure uniform clearance from the coils on the tank wall. The DETC is also aligned using laser to guarantee smooth shaft rotation and minimal contact resistance. All floors of the plant were ground and sealed in 2015 to eliminate floor dust. Four winding machines were added to increase the capacity to build larger coils. The plant is equipped to manufacture 30 MVA base rating, 161 kV, 650 kV BIL as well as dry-type transformers to 10 MVA, 35 kV, 150 kV BIL.

A second test bay was added in 2015, allowing two units to test simultaneously. The impulse test capacity was increased to offer switching-wave impulse testing.

The net result of the improvements is long transformer life.

A core-building station with hydraulic lift was commissioned in 2019 to ensure minimum core handling and reduced losses.