News

REW’S 2022 TRADESHOW SCHEDULE – STOP AND VISIT


Richmond Engineering Works will participate in the following tradeshow for 2022.  Please be sure to stop by and visit.

Electric Power/Experience Power: October 2-6, 2022
Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center
6700 North Gaylord Rockies Boulevard
Aurora, CO  80019  (Denver, Colorado)
REW’s Booth is #110.

REW provides design, fabrication, and installation for bulk materials handling equipment and systems.  Along with the installation of complete machines, we offer structural, mechanical and/or electrical inspections and upgrades to keep your existing equipment running at top performance.  We are available 24/7 for emergency breakdown assistance.

Stop by to discuss your equipment requirements with our staff at the upcoming tradeshow or if you can’t attend the show, call 412-787-9640 and one of our engineers would be happy to assist you.

Again, we look forward to taking with you!!!

Oil & Gas – Performance Enhancement Project


In March, 2020, Richmond Oil & Gas Controls provided engineering and controls support for a performance enhancement project at a compressor facility in Eastern Ohio. The site utilizes five (5) natural gas compressor packages to combine gas from multiple well pads into a single high-volume transmission pipeline. The site was originally designed for a total gas flow of approximately 340 MMscfd. Increase in well production due to advancements in drilling and fracking technology led to a need for additional facility throughput. Due to cost and lead time obstacles of installing an additional compressor unit, alternate options were investigated to maximize the output of the existing equipment. Data suggested that reconfiguring the compressor could provide the additional flow needed. Additional engine horsepower would be required in order to keep the reconfigured compressor reliable so it was decided to change from an engine driven cooling fan to an electrical motor driven cooling fan and reflash the engine ECU to free up additional horsepower. Richmond was contracted to engineer the electrical details and integrate the new equipment into the existing station control system.

Richmond selected 125HP ABB ACS880 variable speed drives for their proven reliability as well as a nearly 60% cost savings. The ABB drives also provide excellent harmonic filtering capability which was a concern at the site due to multiple other VFD powered loads. The drives were coupled with ethernet communication modules to easily integrate with the site’s existing ethernet network and provide the flexibility of gathering performance and fault data into the site’s control system.

In addition to using the latest technology with the ABB VFDs, Richmond utilized ServiceWireCo.’s ServiceDrive® VFD cable and patented cable terminating connectors as well as an insulated motor bearing to help mitigate against electromagnetic interference and stray currents that lead to motor bearing failures.

All new equipment was incorporated into the site’s existing electrical building and system. Richmond was also employed to revise the existing PLC and HMI programs to integrate the control of the new VFDs into the programs. Programming was used to implement multiple different types of automatic control schemes based on different operating conditions.

The results of the enhancement project were greater than anticipated. Flow was expected to increase by 3.5 MMscfd per unit, however each unit saw a 20 MMscfd increase in flow. Not only did the flow increase surpass expectations, but the project construction was completed eight (8) days ahead of schedule.

Compressor Facility in Eastern OhioOil & Gas Electrical House

REW’S 2020 TRADESHOW SCHEDULE


Richmond Engineering Works will participate in the following tradeshows for 2020.  Please be sure to stop by and visit with us.

 

GEAPS 2020:   March 21-24, 2020

Minneapolis Convention Center

1301 Second Avenue S., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403

REW’s Booth is #544.

 

Electric Power:   April 14-17, 2020

Colorado Convention Center

700 14th Street, Denver, Colorado 80202

REW’s Booth is #608.

 

REW provides design, fabricating, and installation for all your material handling equipment and systems needs.  Along with the installation of complete machines, we offer structural, mechanical and/or electrical inspections and upgrades to keep your existing equipment running efficiently.

Come discuss your equipment requirements with our staff at the upcoming tradeshows or if you can’t attend a show, call 412-787-9640.

Again, we look forward to taking with you!!!

Magnetic Separator Installations


Richmond Engineering Works engineered and provided turnkey installation of two (2) newly designed magnetic separators and structures.  The goal was to remove tramp iron from the incoming coal conveyor as material is transported from their REW Rotary Car Dumper to the stock yard.  The magnetic separators were designed to help protect equipment further down the line on the coal handling system and increase personnel safety.

REW provided a suspended, electro-magnetic separator sized for the belt width, speed, and feed rate.  After foundations where poured and cured, a one-week shutdown was required for installation of mechanical components and structure.  The electrical installation was completed between operation cycles.  As an additional safety feature, guards around the tramp iron hopper were designed and added due to the distance between the magnetic separator and the hopper.

Each installation consisted of:

  • New magnet and magnet rectifier sized for a 72” belt traveling at 615 feet per minute.
  • Steel structure to support magnet including 10-ton trolley beam, steel frame to support trolley beam, powered trolley, rigging to hang magnet, and roofing for the entire structure.
  • Concrete fittings for the magnet support structure and a concrete pad for the tramp iron hopper.
  • Electrical installation of magnet, festoon cables, magnet rectifier, magnet disconnect, trolley starter and lighting.
  • Erection of the magnet support structure and roofing.
  • Technical field assistance for installation and startup.

If your magnetic separator is in need of replacement or you need to add additional units to your conveying systems, contact Richmond Engineering Works at 412-787-9640.

Magnetic Separator Installation

STACKER RECLAIMER ELECTRICAL UPGRADE


A complete electrical upgrade to a stacker reclaimer was accomplished at a generating station in Missouri by Richmond Engineering Works. The machine was originally built in the 1970s and was mostly using original controls, however, spare parts were becoming more difficult to obtain. With the use of new, more reliable and easier troubleshooting PLC and motor drives, productivity increases. The operators receive better informational interface via PanelView™ Plus and equipment life is extended. This stacker reclaimer upgrade also provided increased personnel protection with the addition of arc flash rated equipment and an arc flash coordination study.

REW provided complete turnkey, material, installation and field services for the following:

• New Stainless Steel Electrical House. This was assembled in our shop and FAT tested prior to being shipped to the site. The North and East door egress are double doors, air lock type entry with three windows on outer vestibule so operator can stand in vestibules and use the newly installed remote control system to manually operate the machine from the gantry. To accomplish adding North and East vestibules, the original platform had to be extended for it infringed on the walkways of the original design. REW increased the platform and redesigned the walkways. E-House air pressurized via air intake above tripper and filtered with Caterpillar® style filtering.
• New PLC ControlLogix L72 Control System.
• PowerFlex® Swing DC Drives.
• PowerFlex® Bucket Wheel DC Drive.
• PowerFlex® Hopper Feeder VFD Drive.
• PowerFlex® Travel Drive VFD Drives – Travel motors will be utilized in the deceleration of the stacker reclaimer rather than the old system of relying solely on brakes. They are engineered to allow dynamic load sharing among the four travel drives.

All drives are housed in a NEMA12 with a flange operated molded case circuit breaker for local disconnect or isolation. Door mounted keypads allow programming and monitoring without opening cabinet.

• New Arc Resistant Motor Control Center (MCC).
• 500 KVA Power Distribution Transformer Mounted Inside Electrical House.
• 480 VAC Switch Gear with Arc Flash Protection All the Way to 86.9 KV Switch Gear.
• Festoon – Upgraded with new cable tray, trolley equipment and cable. The cable tray under the elevating conveyor was repositioned to allow for more travel of the festoon system.
• VFD Rated Travel Motors, AC Thruster, Brakes and Couplings.
• Outside LED Lighting and Receptacles.
• Dynapar Encoder for Boom Hoist, Boom Swing and Splitter Gate Positions.
• Electro-Sensor Shaft Speed Sensors for Boom Conveyor, Yard Conveyor and Bucket Wheel.
• Thermo Scientific Ramsey Mercury-Free Tilt Sensors for Boom Tip Stacking, Hopper and Plug Chute Probes.
• Thermo Scientific Ramsey Protection Switches for Pullcords and Belt Alignment Switches.
• Eaton (Cutler Hammer) Crane Control Limit Switches.
• Texas Electronics Anemometer.
• Edwards Signaling Horns Boom and Yard Conveyors and Stacker Reclaimer Travel.
• Allen Bradley Push Buttons and Emergency Stop Operators – Existing pushbuttons and emergency stop buttons around the stacker reclaimer were replaced and the new ones are now housed in a stainless steel enclosure.
• Fiber Optic Communications to Coal Yard PLC, Arc Flash Protection for 6.9 KV Supply and Fail Safe 10 mS Tripping of Yard Belt Via Pullcords on Stacker Reclaimer.

No job is without challenges and this one is no exception. Due to the electrical house having to be placed under the tripper, REW had to design and build a temporary structure with rollers to sit the new electrical house on and slide the new electrical house under the tripper and into place.

If your stacker reclaimer is aging and in need of an upgrade, for more information contact REW at 412-787-9640.

Electrical House for Stacker   Festoon System

Stacker Reclaimer Electrrical Upgrade

2019 Tradeshows – Stop By and Visit With Us


Richmond Engineering Works (REW) will be participating in the following tradeshows for 2019. We hope that you will take the time to stop in and visit with us. Our sales staff will be in the booth to assist you with any questions or needs you might have on your material handling equipment.

REW offers a full range of electrical, mechanical and structural engineering services and upgrades, including equipment design and supply, drafting services, field technical assistance, machine inspections, electrical control upgrades, engineered parts, engineering studies, failure analysis and troubleshooting, on-site construction, start-ups and tune-ups. We are available 24/7 for emergency breakdown assistance. Our group of Professional Engineers (PE) can find an economical solution to your existing machine’s problem using user-friendly, up-to-date industrial systems that will increase productivity and extend machine life.

Energy Generation Conference: January 29-31, 2019
Bismarck Events Center
315 South 5th Street, Bismarck, North Dakota, 58504
REW’s Booth is #811.

GEAPS 2019: March 9-12, 2019
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
900 Convention Center Blvd., New Orleans, Louisiana, 70130
REW’s Booth is #815.

Electric Power: April 24-25, 2019
Mirage Events Center
3610-3624 S. Sammy Davis Jr. Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89109
REW’s Booth is #819.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Railcar Positioner Upgrade


Richmond Engineering Works (REW) has completed a Railcar Positioner Upgrade for a power station in Missouri. The project consisted of upgrading the runway foundation for the positioner carriage and rebuilding / upgrading the hydraulic and mechanical equipment on the spare positioner carriage supplied by the customer. With this upgrade, unloading times where improved from unloading a unit train in 6 hours to now 5 hours. In addition, the positioner arm speed was improved from 20 seconds to 6 seconds. By replacing and / or upgrading your equipment, production increases, safety is improved and life is extended.

The upper half of the entire length of runway was removed and rebuilt by embedding a new fabricated and machined steel frame supplied by REW. The new runway design integrates crane rail for the thrust and travel rails therefore reducing the bearing stress on the foundation and lengthening the life expectancy of the runway. In addition to increasing the life expectancy of the runway, the crane rails are superior in hardness, strength and wear-ability compared to the previous wear plate design and thus reduce maintenance time and costs.

The existing claw style arm on the positioner was replaced with a forked head style arm. The forked head style arm provides the same functionality as the claw arm style, as far as indexing unit train cars, but does not require all the hydraulic equipment and maintenance that comes with a claw style arm. An additional benefit of the forked head style arm, beyond the reduced maintenance costs, is the reduction in cycle time.

The travel and positioning sensors of the carriage were upgraded. The original travel and positioning of the carriage was operated on ten mechanical switches, two photo eye sensors and one laser. This system was susceptible to mis-spots and would require manual overrides to correct inaccurate spotting of the railcars in the entry and exit chocks. The switches were replaced with four latching style sensors, three photo eyes and one laser. The new system will adjust automatically to spot the railcars in the chocks without the need of the manual operation of the equipment therefore reducing cycle time.

The customer supplied spare HPU was upgraded to increase cylinder speed, improve arm seating accuracy and eliminate cylinder drift. The speed of the cylinder was increased by the addition of another accumulator to the HPU. Dual, programmable proportional valves were installed to replace the existing directional valves. This allowed smooth accel and decel ramping of the cylinder. The size of the existing cylinder ports were increased and counterbalance valves installed to eliminate cylinder drift.

A new automatic lubrication system was installed onto the carriage frame to provide grease at 15 lubrication points. The lubrication system provides a specified amount of grease independently to each of the 15 grease ports. Therefore, the amount of grease can be increased or decreased at each lubrication point. The lubrication system runs when the equipment is powered on and provides small steady amounts of grease during operation.

For more information, contact us at 412-787-9640.

Railcar Positioner Runway
Before
Railcar Positioner Runway
After

2017 Bulk Material Handling Projects


It has been a busy and eventful 2017 with the installation of three new rotary car dumpers, two with end rings in and one with end rings out. One rotary car dumper included mechanical car clamps vs hydraulic car clamps which is what REW has implemented on previous rotary car dumpers.

Our team traveled out West twice during the year. The first trip out West took place in the spring to perform some mechanical upgrades to a Rotary Car Dumper. The plant transitioned from steel train cars to aluminum. Prior to any work, a study was conducted on the counterweights and drives due to the transition of higher capacity cars. New counterweights were installed and the spill wall was modified, along with a few structural repairs, and adjustments to the car clamps.

The second trip out West was for an electrical upgrade at a different power plant. This upgrade consisted of a new transformer and MCC, electrical drives for their positioner arm, entry holding arm, and exit holding arm drives. The PLC system was upgraded along with the HMI system.

A railcar positioner upgrade installation with a new runway, positioner arm and carriage modification, side from a mechanical upgrade was completed in December.

Aside from working on Rotary Car Dumpers, Stacker Reclaimers kept us busy as well this year. REW finished an ongoing project from 2016 by replacing the existing bucket wheel gear box with a new planetary unit. Another Stacker project included an installation of a new hinge pin. The final Stacker project of the year included the re-installation of the slew drives and change out of the pinion gear on the travel truck.

A number of inspections were performed this year on Rotary Car Dumpers, Positioners, Stacker Reclaimers, and Ship unloaders.

We are grateful for the many opportunities and thank you for your continued support. We look forward to our ongoing development of our customer relations in working with everyone in 2018. For more information contact Richmond Engineering Works at 412-787-9640.Bulk Material Handling

A Successful Installation


Our current rotary car dumper installation, that started on March 6, was completed on schedule.  During the eight (8) week outage, we installed a new dumper barrel, trunnions, sill beams, grizzly, HPU and hydraulic car clamps, drive bases, pinions and reducers.  Replacing the existing dumper has provided ease of maintenance and machine longevity.  The new hydraulic car clamps are now easy to service and the new drive bases corrected multiple, persistent maintenance issues.  The dumper is running smoothly and successfully.  See our video below.

 

Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) Plant Upgrade


What happens to your garbage after you throw it out?

Our engineered control systems can now turn it into energy!

Richmond Engineering just finished a control system update for a Refuse Derived Fuel ( RDF) plant. In many parts of the United States, household garbage is dumped in a landfill and covered up.  Richmond Engineering has recently been working with utilities to turn trash into energy; we've developed controls for plants to separate recyclable material such as aluminum, steel, glass, and paper cardboard from their waste. 

RDF typically consists of using combustible components such as waste materials that are non recyclable plastic, paper cardboard, and labels. After sorting the recyclable and non recyclable material,  the non recyclable/waste material is burned in a combustor. The resultant heat is used to create steam for heating in local facilities such as, schools and hospitals. Another use of this heat is the process steam for a manufacturer of sandpaper. During the summer, when there is a low heat demand, the extra steam is used to service and spin steam turbines that generate electricity. Our designs are intended to recycle the useful materials as well as create steam and electricity from the heat of the waste material. This process is also a good alternative rather than sending waste to the landfill.

If you are interested in this process, please contact our Minnesota Office.

 

 

Pictured is the original control system. It was unreliable, unsafe, and would often trip the plant causing there to be downtime and damage.

The next two pictures are the new controls that were installed this winter.

The final task is updating the Window's XP computers.

 

Refuse Derived Fuel
Refuse Derived Fuel
RFD
RDF Screens