Multidisciplinary maintenance and repair approach

Maintenance, Test & Measurement, Calibration

Calibration equipment & service suppliers

Physical/mechanical test equipment suppliers

Technews Industry Guide: Maintenance, Reliability & Asset Optimisation 2019 Maintenance, Test & Measurement, Calibration

Skyriders cements

A multidisciplinary maintenance and repair solution from Skyriders Access Specialists has assisted a leading supplier of superior quality construction materials and technical solutions such as cement, aggregate and readymix concrete make the most of a recent shutdown period.

A five-person rope-access team was deployed for the four-day project, which was completed successfully during September 2018. Skyriders’ scope of work comprised routine inspection of induced draft (ID) ducting associated with a cooling tower at the supplier’s Kiln 3 operation.

An ID tower is essentially convection cooled, as opposed to a forced draft (FD) cooling tower. The former is 50% more energy-efficient, based on a draw-through arrangement whereby a fan mounted on top pulls air through to create a cooling effect around the furnace area.

The Skyriders team gained access via the top hatches, and from there abseiled down in order to carry out the internal inspection. “We picked up a few issues that required repair,” explains the company’s marketing manager, Mike Zinn. “However, the fact that the team we deployed had welding experience as well facilitated this aspect of the project.”

Close collaboration with the client in terms of providing the correct dimensions and thicknesses for the repairs meant that the replacement sections could be cut and bent according to specification, and then rigged and welded in place by the Skyriders team.

“The fact that we used rope access meant that no scaffolding was required for the repair portion of the project,” concludes Zinn. “This was critical in terms of the timeframe, as such a shutdown has fixed start and end dates, which cannot be moved around.”

The concrete supplier is a long-standing client of Skyriders, which is looking to introduce its Elios collision-resistant drone technology for future confined space and remote inspection work at the plant.

For more information contact Mike Zinn, Skyriders, +27 11 312 1418, [email protected], www.ropeaccess.co.za

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Maintenance, Test & Measurement, Calibration

Multidisciplinary maintenance and repair approach

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