SILK were approached by a wind turbine manufacturer and operator to design a mid-shaft journal turner to machine the high speed shaft inside the turbine nacelle.
The customer required a light weight machine that could be manhandled and built on site, that had both fixed and interlocked guards and that could reduce the current 6 day machining activity whilst providing greater accuracy.
SILK worked closely with our client to ensure we fulfilled the design and safety requirements while providing a suitable solution.
The machine designed was modular and could fit inside three small peli-cases with each section easily man handled. The machine incorporated, Perspex fixed guards, Proximity sensors and two types of E-stop as well as a Remote-control operation. The Mid Shaft Journal Turning machine was so easy to use, accurate and quick that the machining time was reduced by half saving the customer a lot of downtime and has become embedded in the customers procedures as the only way to perform this activity.
For more details on this product or any other bespoke machining enquiries please ‘Contact us’.
A large oil and gas refinery asked TEAM® to design a solution for an upcoming turnaround. The turnaround required several joints to be de-torqued from a section of plant that was known to have ceased or difficult to remove bolts. The customer wanted a “hot work free” solution for a range of flange sizes in order to expedite these critical path activities. TEAM® designed the ‘Flange Bolt Cutting Machine – FBC 120’, that allows a quick set up time on a range of flanges.
The ‘FBC 120’ can cut through bolts at the joint, or the whole nut and bolt assembly on the flange face. The flange bolt cutter is so efficient that a 2” bolt can be severed in approximately 3 minutes whereas one stuck bolt can take hours to free. The ‘FBC 120’ flange bolt cutting machine is an externally mounted cold cutting saw, designed to provide a fast and safe alternative solution to removing ceased bolts from flanges with an adjustable guard to keep the user safe.
Like its predecessors the TEAM® Pneumatic Safety Unit (PSU) provides an inline air filtering and lubrication function to efficiently operate your pneumatic machinery. However, the TEAM® Pneumatic Safety Unit has been purposely designed with safety in mind to reduce the chance of accidents occurring while carrying out any machining operation.
If there is a temporary loss of compressed air, the TEAM® Pneumatic Safety Unit will detect it and go into the E-Stop state. This will ensure the air supply is locked off, preventing reactivation, whilst simultaneously dumping air and stopping the machine almost instantly.
When the compressed air supply is reintroduced, the TEAM® Pneumatic Safety Unit remains in its locked off state meaning that the machine will not automatically restart. The operator must manually restart the machine once they are in a safe position to do so.
The TEAM® Pneumatic Safety Unit is supplied, as standard, with a remote and quick to connect E-Stop sub-assembly, complete with magnetic base. This always allows the operator to locate the E-stop within easy reach and enables the machine to be stopped almost instantly once depressed.
Optional extra’s for the TEAM® Pneumatic Safety Unit are the Deadman’s Handle or the Foot Pedal. Both items are mounted at the end of a 2m umbilical and work in conjunction with the Remote E-stop. Both Foot Pedal and Deadman’s handle must be held or depressed by the operator for the machine to operate and will fail-to-safe and cut the air supply if released.
For more details please – ‘Contact us’
(+44)1539 729009
