N E W S R E L E A S E from FURMANITE AUSTRALIA
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Downtime minimised with in-situ solution for alumina refinery
Several days’ costly delay in maintenance of a generator was avoided at an Australian alumina refinery recently, thanks to an in-situ machining solution from Furmanite, the speciality services company geared to maximising asset uptime, carried out at short notice within an eight hour shift.
The brakes on a 30 ton capacity crane used to move loads on the generator platform at the refinery’s power station had overheated and failed, due to irregular wear and poor surface finish, with heat damage to the calliper material adding to the extent of the damage caused.
The crane failure was causing problems and expensive delays for the overhaul crew working on one of the power generating alternators, so rapid repair was required. To remove the winch drum assembly to disassemble the drive train components and repair the brake in a workshop, however, would require large craneage (due to the reach needed), involving costly and time-consuming shutdown and logistical issues. Furmanite was called in to find an alternative.
Furmanite met the challenge by devising a machining rig that could be mobilised at short notice and undertake the necessary work without having to disassemble the drive train components. Instead, Furmanite’s innovative approach was designed to minimise downtime and cost by setting up a linear machining bed parallel to the brake drum and utilising the rope drum drive to rotate the brake drum for the machining process (having removed the wire rope from the rope drum and disassembled the brake calliper arrangement). Furmanite was on site and undertaking the work within 24 hours of being called.
A survey of the drum surface using a dial test indicator and micrometers revealed that the surface finish exceeded specification and displayed an irregular profile. Using its highly effective machining rig and tungsten carbide insert tooling, Furmanite machined the brake drum to remove the surface irregularities and reinstate an acceptable surface roughness of 1.6µm, 0.00mm rotational run out and maximum diameteral variation of 201.93 to 201.9mm.
The work was successfully completed within a standard eight hour shift, slashing the several-day downtime that would have been required to repair the drum in a workshop, eliminating the need for costly large craneage and logistical considerations, and dramatically reducing the costly delays that the crane failure was causing.
Furmanite technical supervisor Stan Horton added: “This is typical of the type of service we’re able to offer our clients, with our wide range of services and technologies all designed to help maximise asset uptime. By being able to respond quickly and devise an approach to get the crane operational again with minimum delay, we were able to offer the customer a high value solution.”
For further press information contact:
Sarah Manwaring-White
Keep in Touch Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1451 844 488
Email: sarah_mw@keepintouch.co.uk