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. 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 cooling tower is essentially a mechanical cooling tower, 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 fills to create a cooling effect around the furnace area.
The team gained access via access hatches on top, from which it abseiled down to carry out the internal inspection.
“We picked up a few issues that required repair. However, the fact that the team we deployed had welding experience as well facilitated this aspect of the project,” said Skyriders Marketing Manager Mike Zinn.
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. This was critical in terms of the timeframe, as such a shutdown has a fixed start and end date that had to be adhered to in terms of productivity and operational efficiency,” Zinn said.
The cement, aggregate, and readymix 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 maintenance work for the client.