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ID Fan Changeout

Project Summary

Background

Quartzelec had the opportunity to work with a renewable energy power station in Scotland, specialising in converting poultry litter into electricity. The only one in the world using fluidised bed technology, the power station provides an invaluable service to the Scottish poultry industry.

Encountering premature bearing failure and high vibration on the 355kW ID Fan Drive Motor led to an investigation by Quartzelec which highlighted excessive wear on the impellor shaft. When shutdown, the shaft was found to have large holes and chips on the bearing journals requiring a replacement of the entire shaft assembly and impellor.

The Project

Quartzelec commenced work to install and commission a new ID fan during the station’s planned shutdown. With a new impellor and shaft ordered from the OEM and assembled and balanced to G2.5 by Quartzelec, the key plate and shaft spacers were manufactured in house and the couplings were bored and keyed.

During the shutdown, Quartzelec arrived on site and dismantled the entire ID fan assembly with the first challenge to remove the fan casing. The area around the bedplate was very tight with no room for error and with another fan assembly adjacent to the ID fan, careful planning and consideration was given when lifting the impellor shaft out. The old assembly was removed using a 35T crane and the baseplate, flanges and gaskets were cleaned and replaced.

The enclosure was repaired by plating and welding the ducting and fan casing and the new impellor was placed into enclosure. The motor was lifted into position, alignment was completed and the machine was de-isolated. Upon initial start-up, the vibration levels recorded were less than 0.9mm/s.  

The job was successfully completed within the scheduled time with some additional work being carried out on the fan damper.

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