Cool Tools and Planning Make Dryer Installation Successful

Barnhart specializes in remove and replace projects. We enjoy the challenge involved in safely extricating a component, which is often buried in a tight, congested space with limited access, and replacing it while causing minimal plant disruptions and downtime.

These kinds of projects get our engineering team’s creative juices flowing as they devise a plan of action using our cool tools and specialized rigging techniques to get the job done.

Sometimes we handle just the replacement portion of the project, which doesn’t necessarily require any less innovative engineering or tools. For a project at a wood and pulp mill in Maine, Barnhart’s job was to haul and set two Yankee dryers weighing 141 tons each. They started in onsite staging and were hauled a half mile utilizing six lines of PST to a raised building opening.

The dryers were then hoisted 20’ in the air to reach the building opening using 44A gantries with a rigging tray arrangement that incorporated a 16” slide track. Once at the elevation, Barnhart slid the dryers along the track and handed them off to a 450 J/R gantry.

Floor loading issues were a problem, and Barnhart had to use transverse beams to support our track system on load bearing points. In tight working conditions, Barnhart had to rig, lift and rotate the dryer using a spreader with a swivel hook in order to rough set the dryer on its support steel.

Despite these challenges, which also included tight tolerances, an accelerated schedule and logistical considerations, the dryer was installed safely and on schedule.