Refinery modules given lift

The 100 t capacity Radiolink plus dynamometers were provided by Equipment Corps Inc., which delivered the load monitoring solution to Irving Equipment. The latter also provided the Demag CC2800 crawler crane, equipped with a superlift. The equipment combined to complete a key phase of the oil refinery project, where a new processing unit was being installed.

Once Irving had designed and fabricated the customised lifting frame, based on the refinery’s specifications, it needed a method of monitoring the loads so they could be certain that the forces generated during the lift did not exceed the design criteria; the modules had extremely tight deflection tolerances that had to be adhered to. Further, the height of rigging had to be kept to a minimum due to the weight of the lifts and to avoid the need for a larger crane. The frame was designed to pin directly to the hook of the Demag.

Irving’s Ryan Long said: “The module was designed by the time we were introduced to the lift so deciding where the pick points should be located was a challenge. We needed to find a way to safely lift the modules, whilst conforming to the pick points that were available, which turned out to be three rows of four, including a centre row, which made traditional frames and spreader beams prohibitive. Both [modules] had identical lifting points but different weights and centres of gravity. Each pick point was directly above a steel supporting column in the module and the structural design limitations of those columns differed.”

Under the frame were a total of 82 55 t shackles, 14 Crosby 2.75 in. turnbuckles, and four equalizer plates, in addition to the load cells. A turnbuckle is a piece of rigging gear traditionally used in tensioning applications. They are adjustable in length by means of turning a centre body around opposing screws. They are most commonly associated with utility pole guy-wires.

Luke Habza of Equipment Corps added: “After taking a light pull with the crane, the team was first able to determine if the load ratios were approximately correct on each pick point. After adjustments were made to the turnbuckles based on the real-time readout on the tablet [utilising SP’s SW-MWLC high-speed wireless data-logging software] the lift director was able to signal the crane to take incrementally larger loads until the module was airborne and the load of each pick point was known with confidence.”

Each module had been transported from a barge by Irving using 36 axle lines of self-propelled modular transporters (SPMT). Equipment Corps then placed them onto supporting stools whilst the site made final preparations. The modules were transported approximately 2.5 km on land and barged another 20 km prior to being landed on those stools. Irving used a team of six people for the transportation and four people to execute the lift.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/refining/08062018/refinery-modules-given-lift/