UK lightweight gantry and davit crane manufacturer Reid Lifting (Reid) provided a custom version of its 1000kg capacity Porta-Gantry system to a wastewater treatment facility in Ajman, United Arab Emirates. The Porta-Gantry was used to lift 600kg blower motors free from acoustic housings for maintenance, repair and replacement.
Reid said the project presented a number of challenges. First only panels at the front and back of the motors’ acoustic housing were easily accessible. Second, there was only 390mm of headroom between the motors’ lifting point and the top panel of the enclosures. Further, the flooring was uneven and access was difficult.
Reid managing director Nick Battersby elaborated: “The motors were located on a plinth and we had to utilise a sloping walkway; the floor was uneven on the other side of the acoustic housings, too. The solution had to accommodate the extremely tight headroom and the ground conditions.”
A raft of alternative solutions had already been ruled out by personnel at the plant, Reid revealed.
Reid customised its PG1000 Porta-Gantry, providing it with a bespoke trolley system and pick-up bar, with wind-up jack legs. Reid said it created a ‘gull wing’ attachment to create lifting points higher than the top of the beam. Two hand chain hoists, one on each side, were rigged to this take the load further down the motors, lift them off fixtures and then free them from the housings.
A four-metre-long beam was threaded through the open enclosures and mounted on two frames, the uprights of which provided rough height adjustment in 50mm increments, before being levelled using the jack legs’ height control. Reid said this enabled it to take the top of the beam to within a couple of millimetres of the top of the enclosure.
Reid concluded that in this way the customised PG1000 not only met the challenges of the application but also presented Black & Veatch with an economic system that requires little maintenance, is easy to assemble and simple to use. The PG1000 has remained onsite for use on other projects.