Liquid-Cooled Test Bay

Posted on August 3, 2022August 11, 2022 by Josie Krugerud — Leave a comment

WINCO prides itself for our quality generators. We want to ensure every generator that goes out our door, is ready when you need it. This is why we 100% load test every generator. Our test bays are constantly in use and our technicians ensure that generators pass inspection. Our technicians check for shutdowns, read gauges, test high voltages, and engine temps, to name a few.

Within the past few years, we have been working on providing larger power capabilities. Right now, we offer our largest generator at 600kW. Having such a large generator being built, our old test bay wasn’t large enough and we needed to find a way to test them. Therefore, we relocated our liquid-cooled test bay to a new area and installed upgrades to our new test bay to suit our growing capabilities.

THE OLD

The old liquid-cooled test bay was created inside an old paint bay. For many years, this was sufficient and we were able to conduct full load tests on units up to 90kW. But, the old test bay was not able to accommodate the larger, housed units. It was also lacking an adequate fuel system.

THE NEW

The new liquid-cooled test bay is larger, more organized, and able to test our 600kW. Our testers also have a separate area where the can apply loads and monitor readings without having to be close to the generator itself.

Check out the video for a little tour!

Stay tuned to see our other test bays, air-cooled and PTO!

The 70’s Called, They Want Their Load Bank Back

Posted on March 8, 2022March 21, 2022 by Josie Krugerud — 3 Comments

The air-cooled test bay has been an important piece of equipment for many years. All of our portables and small air-cooled standby generators pass through for their 100% load tests. After many years and thousands of units, it was time to update.

THE OLD

The previous load banks have been with the company since the 70’s. They would tell us amperage, single phase readouts, and hertz.

As the Big-Dogs have gotten larger we needed more testing capacity and the load banks hung too low. This reduced efficiency since some units had to be tested in the liquid-cooled test bay.

FIRST THINGS FIRST – DEMOLITION

We removed everything that was no longer needed, the load banks, the old venting, and sound-proofing.

THE SEA OF RED

During construction, we had to move testing to our old liquid-cooled test bay. Normally the units would be on the conveyor rollers and pushed through the test bay. We had sea of HPS units waiting for their turn to be tested.

THE NEW

The new load bank has a home outside. Don’t worry, it will get used to the Minnesota winters.

The new system allows us to test single and three phase units. We have also added a second station to accommodate our second air-cooled assembly line we will be adding later this year.

We have more exciting changes and updates happening! Stay tuned!!

A Simple Machine Helps Generators Move

Posted on April 1, 2021June 24, 2021 by Josie Krugerud — Leave a comment

Until recently, moving a large liquid-cooled unit around the facility would take two or three people. Our manufacturing engineers were on the task to improve how we transport these huge generators. One of our testers, Matt, was happy to show off what has made his job a lot easier.

Before, the larger units would have large casters on the bottom of the frame. One person would steer, while another pushed. If it was a DR130 or larger, it could easily take three people to move it.

Introducing the Cart Caddy

Now, as you can see in the video, the Cart Caddy effortlessly pushes the DR130 out of the test bay. The Cart Caddy may be a small machine, but it can definitely pull, well in this case push, more than its weight.

This is just one of the many improvements we are making to our facility and processes to provide you with better generators more cost effectively. Stay tuned, we are always improving!