The history of Coupling Line Boring begins in the late 1980s, when the power industry was dealing with an unplanned “blind spot” during outages: coupling hole problems. All the attention was being focused on the coupling bolts, because it was the bolts that kept jamming and causing major critical path delays. This concern led to the introduction of the Hydraulic Radial-Fit bolt, as a solution to the increasing industry pressure to drastically reduce turbine outage times.

The new Hydraulic Bolts proved to be superior verses traditional fitted bolts in several important ways but not in all applications.  In cases where coupling holes were too irregular, even the extra clearance of Hydraulic Bolts were not a satisfactory solution.

This convinced us to get to work on the real problem – faulty holes.  Up to this time it had been virtually impossible, in an acceptable time frame, for anyone to bore on-site holes in couplings with any consistent level of predictable accuracy.  Because the earlier equipment couldn’t hold the necessary tolerances, the cutting tools tended to “wander” resulting in holes that were misshapen or out of alignment causing the bolts to get jammed or stuck during the removal process. All it took was one seriously jammed bolt to create havoc on critical path operations.

Our “Aha” moment came when we realized the only way to fix the problem was to fix the design of the boring equipment – and that we did.  In 1993, we pioneered the development of the TRU-Bore Coupling Line Boring System that finally solved the problem.  The new equipment was built to produce true and accurate holes on-site, through both halves of the coupling, each and every time. The TRU-Bore Coupling Line Boring System has been trusted by the Power industry ever since. The TRU-Bore System is:

  1. FASTER: INTEGRA Coupling Services can bore consistently accurate bolt holes on-site in less than two hours per hole, providing you with invaluable time savings.
  2. BETTER: Because of the high precision finish on the coupling holes created by the TRU-Bore Coupling Line Boring System, customers are now able to fully maximize the benefits that can be achieved with hydraulic and conventional bolts.
  3. SAFER: INTEGRA Coupling Services’ TRU-Bore System solves the underlying problems, once and for all, to ensure that all future coupling separations and re-assemblies are done with accuracy and predictability.

With the invention of the TRU-Bore Coupling Line Boring System, “The Hole Problem” was finally solved, and INTEGRA Coupling Services became the leading provider in coupling line boring services and still is today. Contact us today for more information: 1-800-779-2658