Mega Bolts!

Reliability

Nov 05, 2010  Comment

Imagine trying to remove a 5,900 kilogram (13,000 pound), 15 meter (50 foot) long bolt from a piece of equipment. Not a job for your average hand-held wrench! But that’s the challenge some of our staff faced recently.

There are gates at the Whitehorse dam that move up and down to control the amount of water we spill at any given time. The equipment needed to operate these gates includes a series of gears encased in metal boxes (known as a gear-boxes), and two 15 meter (50 foot) bolts. 

After more than 50 years of continuous operation, the bolts needed re-furbishing and the gear boxes had to be replaced. To do this work, we enlisted the help of a large crane.

Everything went well, although the lifts taxed the crane to its maximum capacity both in terms of height and weight. In fact, for the lift of the second bolt, two bottom plates had to be removed to reduce the bolt’s length by close to half a meter (18 inches) and reduce the weight by more than 360 kilograms (800 pounds)!

The bolts have been shipped down south for refurbishment and we've ordered new gearboxes. The new/refurbished pieces should be installed in a few weeks.

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