BERG
Gladstone
What's Been Happening
Innovation at BERG Gladstone
The commissioning of The Lang Lathe
The commissioning of The Titan
Dec 2020 – The machining of the Hydrostatic Bearing Pads on the machine.
With a required flatness tolerance of 0.02mm across the full 4m diameter of the mating bearing faces, our very own Onsite division took time out from their busy schedule and except the challenge of the complicated set up.
Some said the Tolerance was impossible to achieve…
Choosing to machine the pads in the early hours when the temperature was most stable worked to their advantage, Abdul and the team exceeded all expectations and machined the pads within tolerance.
Jan – Feb 2021 – The machining of the Hydrostatic Bearing Face of the Chuck.
After carrying out extensive Laser surveying on the mating faces, we struggled to get consistent results on the Chuck. We had no choice but to use a mobile CMM machine to report the existing flatness. The results showed us that the Chuck face was outside of the required 0.02mm tolerance and it had to be machined also.
Abdul and the Onsite team modified their previous set up from the Machine side and worked on the 17.5tonne Chuck. Three night shifts later, the task was complete to worldclass standards.
Feb – March 2021 – Bringing the two faces together in placing the Chuck back were it belongs.
This stage of the project has been completed and we begin looking forward to testing the Bearing.
March – April 2021 – Dion returns and begins testing the Hydraulics.
May – June 2021 – Engineers SOTO recommend engaging CMA who are specialists in the field of Electrohydraulic Engineering. Extensive testing begins and an alliance is formed between SOTO, CMA and Machine Automation to understand and calculate the changes needed to be made on the hydrostatic system that runs within the Titan. Working to ultimately get the machine back online and put in place the necessary safety features needed to prevent the same damage from happening again.
