Witch Hat Strainers

Ever lose a bolt while working on your car, and then have a hard time finding it? Imagine that while working on industrial piping. Well it happens. When a new pipe goes up, many items can find their way trapped in the pipe, and when the unit is first started up, those items go racing to the end of the pipes. Many times leading into a unit or a pump.

A simple bolt in a new pump is a recipe for disaster. The pump is blown. It has to be removed and repaired. They are often in hard to access locations, covered with guards and shrouds. Crews come in! Permits! Downtime! Behind schedule!

But this simple item could have prevented that. The Witch Hat Strainer (also called a Start-Up Strainer), is placed in-line to catch items like bolts, nuts, tools, debris and anything that may have found it’s way in the line during installation or maintenance.

A novel idea that saves time and money.

Primary Air Fans

Primary Air (P.A.) fans force air into the furnaces of coal-fired power plants. Rotating at 1,600 RPM, they have to be solid, balanced and reliable.

 

Here is a new P.A. fan. It has been welded and the center hub riveted. The welds are then inspected to AWS D14.6 Standards using Magnetic Particle Inspection.

 

The fans are then balanced; much like you’d balance the wheels on your car. The shafts are also balanced and a mated set is created to ensure smooth rotation and a long service life.

 

Engine Case Blower

This assembly is used in an automobile assembly line. When engine cases come out of a bath after final machining, the fluid needs to be cleaned off before handling and assembly.

   

This blower unit utilizes a series of Exair Air Knives to create walls of air to blow the cases dry. It also uses a SMC air cylinder to raise and lower the case in and out of the unit.

   

Custom Replacement Parts

Your facility has a 50 year old unit and replacement parts are not available. You have no drawings and the few parts you do have look like this!

 

 

 

 

 

This is a problem we see with the aging facilities common in our area. Luckily quick in-house replacement parts are one of our specialties.

3D Render of Buckstay Clips
3D Render of Buckstay Clips

No on-line hunting for parts – No stealing from other units! Give Riggs a call and get running again.

Buckstay Clip Inventor DWG
Buckstay Clip Inventor DWG

Stripped Industrial Bolts

Industrial Fan Housing

Stripped Industrial Bolt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever strip a bolt? Frustrating! How about a 22″ long x 3 3/4″ wide heat-treated bolt on an industrial fan housing? Nightmare!

Fan Housing on the VMC
Fan Housing on the boring mill
Drilling Out a Bolt
Drilling Out a Bolt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not many shops have a horizontal boring mill large enough to handle components this size. But it’s just another day at Riggs Machine.

Industrial Bolt Cut
Industrial Bolt Cut
Catfish
Catfish

 

 

 

 

 

Next time you’re staring down the wrong end of a broken or stripped bolt the size of a catfish, you’ll know who to call.

 

The Gator – First Test

The Gator is a remote controlled tank cleaning unit we built for Veolia Environmental Services. It is driven into large tanks to clean the walls of hazardous materials. Its infrared lights cut through the dark and mist while recording all operations from the safety of a control booth.

This is a test of the unit running up a ramp and squeezing through a manway as it would enter a tank in the field.

Boiler Boxes – Refurbished

In a hot-job shop you never know what will come through the doors.

old manway boiler box
Old Manway Boiler Box
old hatch boiler box
Old Hatch Boiler Box

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take these worn boxes that attach to the sides of boilers. We needed to reuse some of the components, but build new, stronger frames.

new frame in process

These new Boiler Boxes will fit just like the old ones, but last a lot longer.

new flange boiler box
New Flange Boiler Box
new manway boiler box
New Manway Boiler Box
new flange box
New Flange Box

Boiler Face Plate w/Expansion Folds

A boiler gets hot, really hot. And when it does, the walls expand.

To help control expansion, one solution is to cut slots in the walls and weld “Expansion Folds” over top of these slots.

Expansion Slot
Expansion Slot
Welded Expansion Fold
Welded Expansion Fold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This gives the plate a little more room to expand as the pressure builds in the unit. They are placed around the plate helping it expand as it heats.

Boiler Face Plate
Boiler Face Plate