Weir’s engineering excellence is recognised by Rolls-Royce

14 September 2010

Edmond Nowicki, a senior engineer at the Weir Power and Industrial valve facility in Lille, Northern France, has been awarded the prestigious Engineering Excellence through Innovation prize from Rolls Royce for his work as part of a team with Rolls Royce engineers.

The award is presented for projects that demonstrate a high degree of innovation. On this occasion it was awarded for the research and development work the team completed on a new steam generator relief valve, which pushes the boundaries of soft-seated design for high temperature application. As a consequence of this work, manufacturing costs have been reduced and the valve made more tolerant of potential debris damage.

M. Nowicki worked on the project for over two years with engineers from both the Rolls-Royce Components division based in Derby and with several teams across the Weir Group. Throughout the process, the team developed and tested prototypes until a robust set of parameters and tolerances were achieved, ensuring units would always meet requirements.

Rolls-Royce Components chief design engineer, John Sulley said, “We are extremely pleased with the work the entire team conducted on the valve design and particularly the work Edmond completed to achieve the required results. We have been extremely pleased with the support we have received from Weir Power and Industrial France on this very demanding and most significant project – an excellent example of team work between Rolls-Royce and Weir.”

Shown here from left to right, Edmond Nowicki, Weir Power & Industrial France, John Sulley, Rolls-Royce, Philippe Duribreu general manager, Weir Power and Industrial France and Phil Thompson, design engineer Rolls-Royce.