Condensate Booster Pump Motor Removal & Replacement

Description Barnhart was brought in late in the game to assist a Midwest nuclear plant in an upcoming outage rigging scope of work involving the removal and replacement of a 4-1/2 ton condensate booster pump motor. The plants standard method of moving motors of this size was to use their site owned and operated air pallet system.

Challenges Although the motor was not a large component by Barnhart's rigging standards, the 79'' long x 48'' wide x 42'' tall 9,000 lbs motor did present multiple rigging challenges.

Scope After Barnhart's initial walk down of the site's available dimensional windows and understanding of the scope of work, it was determined:

• The booster motor could not be moved off it's pedestal and lowered to the ground in it's existing orientation (east - west). A 90 degree rotating operation was required during the west sliding operation to safely lower the motor onto the ground between it's pedestal and the west wall.
• Once the motor was lowered to the ground in between the pedestal and wall, the haul path out of the unit involved 2 turns to avoid the most challenging pinch point between the concrete motor base and the vertical west wall pipe.

Barnhart's initial jacking arrangement of the motor included a center of gravity identification load weighing system, which was an important 1st step in confirming the motor's center of gravity(CG) during movement and swiveling operations. The weighing system efficiently allowed the Barnhart onsite engineer to confirm our CG assumed location. Barnhart's engineered lift and material movement plans called for the use of many small Barnhart nuclear maintenance removal and replacement systems: our 100 ton lite slide system with swiveling bolster, our low profile jacks, and our haul path movement system consisting of our swiveling skates and power bar system.

As the Barnhart onsite team worked through our lift plan steps, the 9,000 lb motor was safely slid, swiveled, lowered, and drove out the tight haul exit haul path. During our Barnhart post job meeting with the site, the site's maintenance team acknowledged that while the motor was not heavy, the total rigging operations needed to complete the removal and replacement scope of work was outside the plants comfort zone. The sites maintenance team appreciated the Barnhart field team's diligence and understanding that, while not a very large component by Barnhart's rigging standards, this booster pump motor replacement project was a very important project in their maintenance team's 2016 Spring outage work scope. Sometimes a site's smallest components can present the trickiest of challenges.

The booster pump motor was removed and replaced on schedule and under budget. Contact your local Barnhart Nuclear Services Representative for a more thorough review of the capabilities of these tools and all our engineered rigging and moving systems.