Rope Access Turns “No Way” Into Project Success

The project plan was to weld multiple sheets of AR 400 wear plate together on the ground to form a 13-meter by 3-meter pie-shaped plate and lift it in position as a whole. The plate was then welded into position following welding procedures and an inspection and test plan developed in-house by Acuren engineers.

The 20,000 lb plate was lifted into place with a 110-ton crane in conjunction with IRATA-certified rope technicians. Welding was done via ropes by welders with IRATA certifications.

Summary

The 8-day window for the replacement of 2 wear plates in coke chutes for an Athabasca Oil Sands client just north of Fort McMurray.

The Challenge

Very short client outage to complete the work. Midway into the project, the client had to reassign certain personnel to other critical path shutdown work, leaving us with less support than planned.

The existing damaged wear plate had to be removed, and upon visual access, it was determined there was 4 times more damage to the wear plate than expected, requiring a scope change.

QA had expanded from 5% weld inspection to 100%.

Mechanisms had to be engineered on-site to mitigate metal warping during the process.

A difficult access area, combined with the confined space limitations, meant that our rope access team had the only viable solution.

The Value

Internal experts from across our North American operations collaborated on this project at a moment’s notice, with great success.

• IRATA Certified Technicians
• Engineering
• CWB Welders
• QA Welding Inspection
• Riggers