Service and Installations
Brooklyn Iron Rebuild
Case history of a blast machine rebuild
Brooklyn Iron Works, Spokane WA.
This was a cool backstory because this is the very first machine I ever sold when I opened my company in 1990. The design of this machine was to lower the price point for a structural steel blasting machines to make them affordable to smaller fabricators.
Everything in the design was meant to save cost; on board dust collectors stuck to the sides of the machine, one piece welded wheel pods (no blast wheel housings), no abrasive storage hoppers. It simply ran the screws and bucket elevators and drained shot through orifices into the blast wheels. It worked, just not very well.
The customer ran tons and tons of steel through it for 25 years. But there was much to be desired for the productivity and maintainability of the machine.
Brooklyn Iron Works (BIW) contacted us (BCS) in June of 2016 to discuss a rebuild. We met on site and reviewed the machine. Discussed the deficiencies and solutions. Cost of a new machine. And possible solutions if a rebuild was the goal.
Being that BIW is a fabricator, they wanted to build some of the components to save costs. We worked out a plan that would incorporate new “EZ Fit” blast wheel assemblies from Wheelabrator, new abrasive valves, new bucket elevators 2’ taller, re-use the 4 individual abrasive separators, make new storage hoppers (4), some electrical upgrades, and a plan to organize and use BCS to plan, manage and carry out the rebuild.
BIW would build the elevator assemblies (2), and fabricate the new wheel pods from Mangagnese (MN) alloy steel according to designs purchased from Wheelabrator. They would also fabricate the; exhaust plenums, abrasive storage hoppers and abrasive adder hopper per BCS designs. BIW was responsible for all electrical wiring, compressed air, site prep etc.
Wheelabrator provided eight (8) new 15 hp EZ fit wheel assemblies, in cast MN housings, designs for the wheel pods and 8 new “sound-a-bator” abrasive control valves with slide gates.
A local electrical controls company provided controls to sense the work entering the blast machine, turn the abrasive valves on and off, provide shot probes (4, BCS design) and control the shot adding system.
BCS was responsible for project management, removal of old components, design of the components mentioned, installation and field fabrication, design and installation of new ducting system, a used Torit 12 cartridge dust collector, a 30 hp ground mounted blower, ducting system design and installation. Start up, tuning and training of the operators.
BIW had a 12 cartridge Torit dust collector on site that was added on to the machine years ago. As part of the upgrade we eliminated the on board dust collectors, and added an additional 12 cartridge Torit dust collector, both tied into a 30 hp ground mounted blower to create a 10,000 cfm ventilation system.
The job was scheduled for early December, 2015. We had a 2 week time schedule for the major redesign. 3 BCS service personnel did the field work by working 12 hour days straight through for 11 days. Some electrical field wiring was finished after the mechanical work. BCS was back on site the following week for start-up and training.
In addition to the machine upgrades BIW added new catwalks and access platforms for the machine. Then painted the completed machine.
This was an interesting project that required working closely together with Wheelabrator, the customer, and BCS to bring together a successful project. On time, on budget, and providing the customer with a modernized machine that is an asset to the customer with many more decades of performance to offer.
Link to Printable Case History including testimonial.
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