CHANGING OF A 22 TONNE BOILER
The project was to change a boiler for Vuka Commondale Treated Timber in Paulpietersburg. This consisted of transporting, the cranage and rigging.
On project commencement, Reef Rigging would need to change out 2 x BS2970 461 model stripped JT boilers; 5t steaming 22t dry mass and all accessories; steam, feedwater and blowdown piping modifications at Vuka Commondale Treated Timber in Paulpietersburg by collaboration of Reef Rigging and Boiler Industrial Plant.
How Reef Rigging helped
The key challenges that were faced when installing the new spare unit into the boiler house were extreme space restriction, and removing the existing stripped-down boiler where there was a walled exit to the loading position. The boilerhouse did not allow access to the crane truck.
The ground conditions of the sawmills were sawdust chips and uncompacted, soft soil surfaces which further complicated the movement across the area of the 15t heavy lift crane trucks – getting each module on-site necessitated a systematic tandem lift by two crane trucks to move them. Changing out the different-sized skids on both boilers was also necessary to accommodate the height differential between the bases to match other fixed components.
The outcome
The existing unit had optimum jacking and stripping to detach from other fixed boiler componentry.
We used a 7t forklift for momentum, jacked up the module onto 4 x 15t skates and rigged out the boiler to exit the boiler room. An extended crane boom was utilised into the building and craned our boiler on skates to the external loading position.
We reset the 2 crane trucks and tandem lifted and moved the module in a small 5m step by step manoeuvre, eventually loading it onto the low bed for onward transportation.
A tandem lift of the unit over the lowbed to remove the skid base and change out with a different-sized skid base for the incoming spare boiler. In the reverse process, transporting the new boiler to the same entry position, driving out the boiler from under suspended boiler load.
The tandem move of the new boiler to the boiler house entrance, followed by rigging in the new unit into its final position. Using 100t hydraulic jacks to orientate the boiler into end-to-end alignment and bolt together the components.
The project in total took 3 days to complete.