Jump to content
IGNORED

how to move two 510 ton heat exchangers


11101110

Recommended Posts

They are passing within 1 mile of my house.......those things have developed quite the celebrity status over the past few weeks around here. Been a slow summer for news I guess :dopeslap:

Link to comment
They are passing within 1 mile of my house.......those things have developed quite the celebrity status over the past few weeks around here. Been a slow summer for news I guess :dopeslap:

 

Keith, since you are so close, how about some nice close ups of the rigs? I wish I could take some time off and come up and watch the move for a day. But with everything going on at work some related to the massive uprgrades at TMI, I have no time. I will be up there near the end of the outage though. PICTURES

Link to comment

I suppose I could check out the travel schedule and see if I can snap some pics.

 

EDIT: Looks like it will be coming through town Thursday-Friday. If the timing works, I might be able to get some shots while its rolling through the middle of Columbia

Link to comment

That's a pretty nifty trailer for making thoee tight turns on the mountain roads.

 

Seems like the title of the photo should be "Why NOT to build a large power plant where the only access roads are in windy hilly terrain." I used to live near that area and rode my bicycle on the roads they are probably using and past TMI.

 

 

We had a large specially designed vessel installed a few years ago where I work. It was too large to ship over the road. It came via the atlantic ocean, then loaded on to barges and up the Mississippi River. But it only weighed about 150 Tons.

 

They manufacturer the blades for the large Siemens wind turbines near where I live. Now those are pretty impressive. Not very heavy, but quite large. They ship most of them by rail on special rail cars.

 

Link to comment
Joe Frickin' Friday
Amazing ...

 

Apparently these transport rigs can "turn on a dime" ...

 

I've seen descriptions of these things before. Many many wheels for load distribution, and each one is independently steerable via computer-controlled electric motor. To maneuver through a turn, the computer orients each wheel so that all of them are tracking through a turning radius with a common center. Presto: no skidding/dragging of tires. You can see this clearly in your pic1 link.

 

Contrast that with the 42-wheel big-rigs we have here in Michigan. Yes, eight 4-wheel axles under the trailer, all the way up to just behind the tractor. Take a sharp turn, and most of the wheels on the trailer are being dragged sideways until the turn is completed. It ain't pretty.

Link to comment

What's in those chemical totes on the ends of each "crawler"? Is that extra hydralic fluid for the crawlers? I hope it doesn't leak that badly. Althouhg it is a long trip. Maybe it's at least biodegradable of food grade hydraulic oil. I thought most of those crawlers were 100% hydralic operated including the rotation and forward motion. I've seen on "Mega Builders" or soemthing similar the same devices used ot move other large/heavy objects including buildings.

Link to comment
Amazing ...

 

Apparently these transport rigs can "turn on a dime" ...

 

Take a sharp turn, and most of the wheels on the trailer are being dragged sideways until the turn is completed. It ain't pretty.

 

Certain dual-rear-axle trucks I see around here *almost* do that. Each axle's tires flex mightily in opposite directions in a sharp turn. Heck, they probably do drag like MI trucks when I'm not looking :eek:

 

------------------

Chris (aka Tender Vittles )

Little '77 KZ400 in the Big Apple

Black '99 RT for Everywhere Else, such as ...

310287-mar2004.gif

 

Link to comment

For another useless tidbit of information. The original TMI heat exchangers were designed to be transported via railway. They were brought up on the Norfolk Southern railway that parallels the Susquehanna River right to the front door at TMI. The new heat exchangers would have followed the same path......EXCEPT, due to new standards implemented since TMI was built, they were not allowed. Apparently the mounting flanges on the original exchangers were not installed at the factory. Instead, they were installed and welded once they reached their final destination of TMI. The new standards required the flanges to be installed and welded before transportation, which made the exchanger too large to go through the railway tunnels. SO, we are stuck with this slow and VERY expensive alternative.

Link to comment
What's in those chemical totes on the ends of each "crawler"? Is that extra hydralic fluid for the crawlers? I hope it doesn't leak that badly. Althouhg it is a long trip. Maybe it's at least biodegradable of food grade hydraulic oil. I thought most of those crawlers were 100% hydralic operated including the rotation and forward motion. I've seen on "Mega Builders" or soemthing similar the same devices used ot move other large/heavy objects including buildings.

 

concensus arond work is that they are diesel fuel tanks.

Link to comment
What's in those chemical totes on the ends of each "crawler"? Is that extra hydralic fluid for the crawlers? I hope it doesn't leak that badly. Althouhg it is a long trip. Maybe it's at least biodegradable of food grade hydraulic oil. I thought most of those crawlers were 100% hydralic operated including the rotation and forward motion. I've seen on "Mega Builders" or soemthing similar the same devices used ot move other large/heavy objects including buildings.

 

concensus arond work is that they are diesel fuel tanks.

 

That would make sense. It would allow you to locate the fuel tanks where it's convenient for maximum felxibility or different load configuartions and dimensions.... while keeing the platform as small as possible.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...