The Electric Motor Slide

Advantage Industrial Machinery Re-Locators Incorporated was hired to complete the sliding of an electric fan motor, employing the rental and use of the Hydra-Slide System from Lifting Gear Hire.

 

THE SITUATION

As rain fell from the sky and thunder sounded from the clouds, John Williams, Lead Foreman of Advantage Industrial Machinery Re-locators Incorporated, knew his project wouldn’t go as smoothly as they planned.

In order to reduce emissions and cut down on air pollution at the Oologah Oklahoma Power Plant, a new electrically-powered fan would have to be installed. To complete the job, AIM, Inc. was hired to complete the transferring and sliding of a 60-80,000 lb electric fan motor, so that it could be lifted and installed inside the fan.

John and the rest of the crew had to place the motor onto a truck, drive the truck into position, and carefully slide the motor off the vehicle, which required them to place the motor on a pedestal. The beams had already been fitted and placed over the top of the pedestal, too.

It all seemed to be going well until…

 

THE CHALLENGE

Several additional challenges presented themselves amid the struggle to slide the large electric fan. “What made the slide hard was the fact that the slide was done 14ft in the air,” John said. “But that’s where the pedestal was. We had to creep up the motor on the trailer and slide it off the trailer onto the stand, but like I said, you had to be at 14ft.”

Another issue included the weather. In fact, the heavy rain fall that John and the team experienced broke Oklahoma records. Lightening was also seen striking the ground sporadically and every time it came within ten miles of the job-site, the crew was forced to stop and retire for the rest of the day.

“Lightening shut us down a bunch of times,” John continued. “We can’t work in those conditions due to the danger involved. Overall, our problems were safety orientated. And a lot of the times we had to stop what we were doing one way and start doing it another way for safety reasons. For instance, we were using cheaters on our fall protection, which is a six foot steel cable that allows you to hook up and give you more length on your fall protection. They’re used quite a bit there. So, it’s nothing out of the ordinary. The problem was that the cable was six feet long and your lanyard was six feet long, which gives you 12 feet, but there was still potential for getting hurt if you fell.”

Things weren’t looking great, but luckily…

 

THE SOLUTION

John and his team found appropriate solutions to their issues without hindering the cost effectiveness of their budget or the timing of their schedule.

But unfortunately, you can’t fix the weather. Due to the lightning strikes, to rectify the hazards that the weather was causing, John positioned the motor in a safe spot on the platform, slid it as far over as it needed to be, and shut down for the day. To make up for lost time, they woke up at the crack of dawn, resumed the slide, pulled in a 14 hour shift, and finished the job.

Among many of the deliberations they had to preemptively consider was choosing the right company for the equipment. For jobs such as these, using the right equipment could make or break a productive job.

“We chose Lifting Gear Hire,” John stated. “We’ve used LGH quite a bit before. Whenever we needed something that’s bigger than what we normally stock, we contact Lifting Gear. It’s a regular thing for us to call them. We’ve worked a lot with them in the past. Their equipment is always safe and easy to use.”

Aside from choosing the right company for their equipment needs, they also needed to get the right piece to solve their sliding challenge and that equipment came in the form of the Hydra-Slide.

“There really wasn’t any other choice,” John added. “There’s different styles of the same equipment, different brands, but we liked the way the Hydra-Slide operates over the others. For this particular scenario, we realized the best option was the Hydra-Slide. Others use cables and stuff and they’re more involved. The Hydra-Slide is safer, simpler, and easier to use. We have way better control over the motor.”

 

THE RESULTS

Despite lousy weather conditions and the ever-changing logistics of safety, John and his crew managed to stay within their time allotment and the customer remained pleased. Ultimately, AIM, Inc. was satisfied with the slide, the customer was satisfied, and nobody was injured during the course of the move.

“Everything went just fine,” John concluded. “We would’ve liked to have gotten things done sooner, but there was just no way that we could. Thankfully, the Hydra-Slide worked great. With projects like this, you need the best equipment to make sure the job gets done safely. With that, there’s definitely more to LGH than just their quality equipment. If I ever have a question, I can always call and get the info I need. The folks at LGH always go the extra mile when you need it. And the Hydra-Slide itself is very useful. We could see the slide being used in a lot of applications – mechanical, electrical generators, power plants, stuff like that – any place you got big machines that are 100,000 pounds, it would help. Regardless, we will continue to use LGH without a doubt. We are looking to get into big machinery and electrical transformer stuff, so we’ll keep the Hydra-Slide in mind.”