N E W S R E L E A S E from FURMANITE AUSTRALIA
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Furmanite expertise wins alumina refinery contract
Furmanite, the technical services company geared to maximising asset uptime, has won a 12-month renewable contract to undertake specialist repair and maintenance work at one of the world’s biggest alumina refineries.
Furmanite will carry out work on 60 tube and shell digestion and slurry heat exchangers at the Worsley Alumina refinery, near the town of Collie in the south west of Western Australia, which produces more than three million tonnes of alumina annually. The work will require the development of purpose-built machinery, as well as strict downtime regimes.
Furmanite, which specialises in solutions to avoid or minimise downtime, has built a reputation for its machining expertise and many years’ experience solving heat exchanger problems for refinery operators throughout Western Australia.
The Worsley Alumina refinery uses heat exchangers in the process of converting bauxite to alumina. Over time, the partition plate joints are eroded by the slurry liquor flow and require maintenance and repair to maintain production efficiency. This work is critical because any downtime on the heat exchangers has the potential to impact on production.
Work needed to each heat exchanger starts with the tube sheets being thoroughly cleaned and inspected. The heat exchanger box and eroded tube ends then need to be face welded to re-build the heater end face, with each tube diameter re-drilled, each tube weld prepared, and the heat exchanger baffle slots machined to standard.
Furmanite has developed a machine designed to achieve this safely, accurately and efficiently within a minimised time frame for each heat exchanger.
The company’s regional sales manager, David Arnold, explained that the tube sheet drilling machine is anchored to the housing to ensure that the frame is held true and parallel to the tube sheet. “A pair of linear rails set up parallel to the tube sheet on all axes will reduce set-up time as only the longitudinal axis will need to be adjusted once each row of holes is set up,” he said.
“A mounting plate with a quill set up also facilitates interchangeable tooling to accept the pilot drill, finishing drill and reamer. With the position of the machine checked for alignment, drilling, reaming and weld preparation can be accomplished on the repaired holes to a high degree of accuracy within a minimal timeframe,” he added. “This process gives Worsley maximum production through minimum downtime and maintenance efficiency.”
The contract with Worsley Alumina took effect from June this year, when work began on the design and manufacture of the specialist machine.
Worsley Alumina heater and vessel co-ordinator of maintenance Peter Bernhardt said that it was important for the company to work closely with contractors and suppliers to achieve common goals. He said the Furmanite contract demonstrated a win-win approach to maintenance requirements.
For further press information contact:
Sarah Manwaring-White, Keep in Touch Ltd,
Tel: +44 (0)1451 844 488 Email: sarah_mw@keepintouch.co.uk
Issued on behalf of Furmanite International