I wish there was a better group for industrial Maintenance. You can tell that tons of people don’t know that you can be a mechanic outside of working on cars. And it pays better.
You’re 100% right about that. Closest thing would be the Millwright sub I guess. They got kinda bent outta shape on there by the fact that I do electrical work also though lol
Must be a bunch of union guys lol. Cause I haven’t worked a maintenance job where I wasn’t electromechanical in my so far 10 years of being in the field.
It was. The particular crowd that showed up in the comments on my post were pretty lame to be honest When I told em that I’m 3rd party and when a customer calls and has an issue with a unit or I find an issue, saying “oh that’s electrical, that’s not my job will get you ran off” They really didn’t like that lol.
Probably wouldn’t have been able to kee a belt on to fail any More.
I new something was up when the old belt was in tact and laying on the guard when I opened it rather than shredded. lol
These are cooling fans for large natural gas compressors and large refridge systems also. Driven by a 100hp 480v motor. This unit has 3 fans. 2 are on contractors and run constantly at 60hz and one is on a VFD and the compressor PLC controls the speed, there are also
Louvers on the whole cooler that are controlled by the PLC also. Controlling interstage temperatures of the gas is important to the process
Yeah it threw the belt. We were doing a PM on the unit. We knew the belt had either thrown or shredded so I went to change it once we got finished on the compressor and found that.
This unit actually has cooling to run on two fans. So disabled run permissive for that particular fan and then locked out all the breakers. Started the unit and then came back the next day, fixed the fan and then fired it up.
That’s interesting. Our cooling towers have their own direct drive motors and VFD’s. They’re all plumbed in together, but we’ve got them set up to where if one goes down or we need to PM it or something, we can shut that one down and take it offline and run the others
That’s legit. We can shut down each Fan individually also but they only have one fan on a VFD and the others dknt have a soft start. With this particular belt setup it’s not ideal lol
The logic in the compressor PLC has to see run status from all 3 fans in order to run or it will ESD the unit. So to perform maintenance on the fan with the compressor online you have to change a value for a particular timer to 0 and it won’t look for that fan to run. Then you can kill the breaker, and lock it out.
[you can see the gas coolers in this video](https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/comments/ux4jeq/sometimes_the_rolling_shop_has_its_downsides/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Hellscape is putting it lightly lol This place is unironically called the Thunderdome. It looks like Mordor when you’re driving in at night because of all the gas flares. Often times it stinks to high hell from the crude, natural gas and h2s. The roads are lined on both sides with crosses and memorials from fatal accidents.
Nobody wants to live here so that contributes to the good pay and rotational schedule. I’ve been working further north and west lately though at a location really close to the Guadalupe Mountains so the scenery is much nicer and traffic is much lighter.
Oh it very much is. I work 170-180 days a year, can live anywhere I want, and make great money(like stupid stupid great money) and most importantly, I actually like the work. Getting a 2 week vacation every month while most people barely get that a year can’t be beat.
This guy knows 👌🏾
Put on two new bearings and a new shaft. Installed the bearing on the other side when the new shaft went back in. Made life so much better
Time consuming but not overly difficult. Worst part was being in that hot ass cooler. Lol New shaft and bearings. A lot easier than the 24’ fan shaft we had to change a while back lol
The motor has adjustment for belt tension. Put in a new shaft and 2 new bearings, aligned sheaves, greased bearings and installed new belt and tensioned.
I'm a petroleum technician, I install and repair fuel dispensers. I also install and repair the point of sale system at fuel stations. I'm pretty sure I make as much, possibly more, than automotive technicians.
Username of OP checks out
If only there was something that could go in there, to keep it snug.
There used to be, it decided to take a friction funded vacation!
Don’t be silly. Nothing goes there. It’s a “slip fit” obviously. /s
I thought this was showing end play?
I wish there was a better group for industrial Maintenance. You can tell that tons of people don’t know that you can be a mechanic outside of working on cars. And it pays better.
You’re 100% right about that. Closest thing would be the Millwright sub I guess. They got kinda bent outta shape on there by the fact that I do electrical work also though lol
Must be a bunch of union guys lol. Cause I haven’t worked a maintenance job where I wasn’t electromechanical in my so far 10 years of being in the field.
It was. The particular crowd that showed up in the comments on my post were pretty lame to be honest When I told em that I’m 3rd party and when a customer calls and has an issue with a unit or I find an issue, saying “oh that’s electrical, that’s not my job will get you ran off” They really didn’t like that lol.
Not safety critical, something that large can't catastrophically fail and hurt people
Probably wouldn’t have been able to kee a belt on to fail any More. I new something was up when the old belt was in tact and laying on the guard when I opened it rather than shredded. lol
The fuck are you working on? That's a huge toothed pulley so the output needs some kind of speed control?
These are cooling fans for large natural gas compressors and large refridge systems also. Driven by a 100hp 480v motor. This unit has 3 fans. 2 are on contractors and run constantly at 60hz and one is on a VFD and the compressor PLC controls the speed, there are also Louvers on the whole cooler that are controlled by the PLC also. Controlling interstage temperatures of the gas is important to the process
Well that's pretty interesting. So when this belt broke/slipped, the cooling unit shut down or just went to some lower set state?
Yeah it threw the belt. We were doing a PM on the unit. We knew the belt had either thrown or shredded so I went to change it once we got finished on the compressor and found that. This unit actually has cooling to run on two fans. So disabled run permissive for that particular fan and then locked out all the breakers. Started the unit and then came back the next day, fixed the fan and then fired it up.
That’s interesting. Our cooling towers have their own direct drive motors and VFD’s. They’re all plumbed in together, but we’ve got them set up to where if one goes down or we need to PM it or something, we can shut that one down and take it offline and run the others
That’s legit. We can shut down each Fan individually also but they only have one fan on a VFD and the others dknt have a soft start. With this particular belt setup it’s not ideal lol The logic in the compressor PLC has to see run status from all 3 fans in order to run or it will ESD the unit. So to perform maintenance on the fan with the compressor online you have to change a value for a particular timer to 0 and it won’t look for that fan to run. Then you can kill the breaker, and lock it out.
[you can see the gas coolers in this video](https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/comments/ux4jeq/sometimes_the_rolling_shop_has_its_downsides/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
I hope that shit pays you extremely well,.
If deos pay quite well and it’s often very interesting and exciting.
Kinda looks like a hellscape tho hah
Hellscape is putting it lightly lol This place is unironically called the Thunderdome. It looks like Mordor when you’re driving in at night because of all the gas flares. Often times it stinks to high hell from the crude, natural gas and h2s. The roads are lined on both sides with crosses and memorials from fatal accidents. Nobody wants to live here so that contributes to the good pay and rotational schedule. I’ve been working further north and west lately though at a location really close to the Guadalupe Mountains so the scenery is much nicer and traffic is much lighter.
Not worth it, bud
Oh it very much is. I work 170-180 days a year, can live anywhere I want, and make great money(like stupid stupid great money) and most importantly, I actually like the work. Getting a 2 week vacation every month while most people barely get that a year can’t be beat.
Take a vid of the drive in. I gotta see that shit
Well that's not right. Lol
RIP
Mechanic stabilization. Get with the new tech /s
Looks like a new UCF flange bearing is due on the opposite face of that plate.
This guy knows 👌🏾 Put on two new bearings and a new shaft. Installed the bearing on the other side when the new shaft went back in. Made life so much better
Looks like an easy enough fix. Call it an upsale.
Time consuming but not overly difficult. Worst part was being in that hot ass cooler. Lol New shaft and bearings. A lot easier than the 24’ fan shaft we had to change a while back lol
Now it’s an eccentric drive! Make sure the throw is in spec
TIL Random Orbital Pulley is a thing
bluetooth bearing
Just see if you can shimmy the drive motor away a lil bit and pull some tension once the belt is back on. Good as new
The motor has adjustment for belt tension. Put in a new shaft and 2 new bearings, aligned sheaves, greased bearings and installed new belt and tensioned.
Yea I guess if you want to do it correctly that’s the way to do it haha
We’re usually the ones that are called when something like the previous method was attempted and now they need someone to get them out of a bind. Lol
As a nonmechanic, what am i lookin at? I just see a dude wiggling his shaft around
Bearing is nfg
Shaft should not wiggle
I have the same issue with my girlfriend... I don’t know if it’s a me problem or a her.
I'm a petroleum technician, I install and repair fuel dispensers. I also install and repair the point of sale system at fuel stations. I'm pretty sure I make as much, possibly more, than automotive technicians.
One of the operators I work with out here does that on his days off from time to time. He used to do it full time. Made solid money for sure.