Engineered for the specific machine · minimized installation scope · hundreds delivered
Control
The mechanical-hydraulic governor served industrial rotating machinery reliably for five decades. But mechanical governors age, wear, and fail, and the parts and expertise to maintain them are increasingly scarce. For operators facing governor obsolescence, the standard advice from the turbine or engine OEM is to replace the governor, valve, actuator, and even the complete control system, a solution that can significantly increase project cost and scope. Innova Technologies offers a more targeted solution by modernizing the governing system with a digital electronic control system engineered to interface with the existing machine. Every retrofit is evaluated individually to determine the most effective combination of retained equipment, new hardware, and custom interfaces, minimizing installation scope while delivering a reliable, maintainable governing system.
Innova Technologies has completed hydraulic governor upgrades on hundreds of steam turbines, gas turbines, hydro turbines, and reciprocating engines across oil and gas, power generation, and industrial applications. Our hydraulic interface design library covers all major mechanical governor types, Woodward UG8, UG40, PGA, PSG, SG, and Hydraulic Governor Series; Barber-Colman; Heinzmann; and Leslie, with pre-engineered actuator interfaces that have been validated in field installations. The result is a governor modernization engineered to minimize field modifications, reduce installation scope, and fit within planned maintenance outage schedules wherever practical.
The Problem
Many of the most common mechanical governors have been out of production for decades. While rebuilt units and replacement parts remain available through third-party suppliers, availability, lead times, and rebuild quality can vary significantly. As internal components, the rotating fly-weights, the pilot valve, the speeder spring assembly, wear over time, the calibration drifts as they do. A governor that is slightly out of specification operates, but hunts, and hunting transmits cyclic mechanical loads to the actuator linkage, the governor drive, and eventually the turbine or engine components downstream.
The maintenance burden of mechanical governors is also substantial. Governors require periodic teardown, inspection, and calibration by technicians with specialized training, training that is increasingly difficult to source as the workforce with mechanical governor experience retires. Calibration requires specialized test equipment and can only be fully verified on the running machine. And a governor that is sent out for rebuild leaves the machine without its governor for extended periods of time. The cumulative cost of these maintenance requirements, over the remaining life of the machine, typically far exceeds the cost of an electronic upgrade.
Capabilities
Innova Technologies implements modern electronic governing functions on industrial control platforms, replacing obsolete mechanical-hydraulic governor systems with configurable digital control. Each retrofit is engineered for the specific machine and may include speed sensing upgrades, new instrumentation, I&E installation, tubing modifications, custom mechanical linkages, and the electrical interface required to integrate with existing or new hydraulic actuators. The result is a modern governing system that improves control performance while providing a reliable, maintainable solution tailored to the application.
For turbines and engines where the field wiring to and from the governor cabinet can be retained, Innova Technologies designs the new governor panel I/O to match the existing terminal block assignments, using the same wire numbers, the same signal types, and the same terminal designations. This backward-compatible I/O design means that the existing field cables are reconnected to the new panel without requiring any changes to the turbine or engine junction box wiring, significantly reducing the installation scope and the potential for wiring errors.
Modern electronic governors require a reliable interface to the turbine or engine hydraulic actuation system. Innova Technologies engineers that interface for each application by selecting commercially available hydraulic control components and designing the mechanical and hydraulic adaptations required to integrate them with existing actuators. Whether through custom manifolds, adapter plates, tubing modifications, or other application-specific solutions, every retrofit is engineered to provide reliable operation while minimizing modifications to the existing equipment.
Innova Technologies implements electronic governor functions on commercially available industrial control platforms, providing customers with complete access to the governing software, configuration, and operating parameters. Speed setpoints, governor gains, droop settings, actuator calibration, alarms, and diagnostics can be viewed, adjusted, and maintained using standard engineering software without proprietary tools or vendor restrictions. This non-proprietary approach gives operators the flexibility to maintain, troubleshoot, and modify their governing system throughout its service life while retaining full ownership of the control platform.
Electronic governor performance requires accurate feedback of actuator position, the governor must know the actual valve position, not just the command position, to close the position feedback loop and achieve stable speed control. Innova Technologies installs position feedback transducers (LVDT, potentiometer, or rotary encoder, depending on the actuator geometry) on the existing actuator output shaft or linkage, providing continuous position feedback to the governor without modifying the actuator's mechanical connection to the turbine valve.
A key advantage of electronic governors over mechanical governors is the ability to report operational data, speed, load, actuator position, governor output, and alarm status, to a facility SCADA, DCS, or HMI system through a standard communication protocol. Innova Technologies' control systems include Modbus RTU/TCP and Ethernet/IP communication as standard, enabling the turbine or engine operating data to be integrated into the facility data historian for trend analysis, performance monitoring, and remote condition assessment without additional instrumentation or field wiring.
Older mechanical governor systems often interface with auxiliary equipment through mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, or legacy electrical connections. As part of the modernization, Innova Technologies engineers the required interfaces to integrate these functions into the new electronic governing system using the signal types and communication methods best suited for the application. This approach preserves existing machine functionality while providing the flexibility, diagnostics, and integration capabilities of a modern digital control platform.
Why Innova Technologies
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Independent control for every turbine class.
Anti-surge, loadshare, performance, and capacity control.
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A MESSAGE FROM JOHN KAZOUR, CEO
To our customers and partners,
For more than 50 years, our team has helped customers keep critical operations running. We built our reputation as Petrotech by taking responsibility for control systems on important rotating machinery.
As more industries came to us with similar challenges across power generation, compression, and hydro applications, our engineering team kept finding ways to solve them. Eventually, the business outgrew the Petrotech name.
We are entering our next chapter as Innova Technologies. The new name reflects the full scope of our work as a rotating machinery control systems specialist. We engineer controls around the machine, deliver complete projects from design through commissioning, and provide support that stays with the problem until it is solved.
Our name is changing, but the people, engineering experience, and commitment behind the work continue. Our responsibility to active projects and installed systems carries forward under the Innova Technologies name. Your current contacts remain the right place to start, and we will communicate directly if an administrative record requires an update.
We appreciate the trust you have placed in us over the decades, and we look forward to continuing that work as Innova Technologies.
CEO, Innova Technologies
