2015 Steel Fabricated Products Entries

This unit was one of two towers built for a refinery project. There is a confidentiality agreement that prevents use of the refiner name. The entered tower was approximately 193′ O.A.H. from bottom of base ring to uppermost top nozzle. Material of construction was 516-70N carbon steel. A total of eleven platforms with associated access ladders were included in the scope of work. After fabrication, all platforms and ladders were assembled, trial fit, removed and disassembled prior to shipment. Trays and insulation was installed in the shop. The tower was shipped with trays and insulation installed. Approximate weight of vessel was 214,000 pounds. Shipping weight after installation of trays and insulation was approximately 315,000 pounds. This work was shipped in one piece a distance of approximately 200 miles with gross transport weight of approximately 225 tons and total ship length (tractor & trailers) of nearly 241 feet.

This was a rush project completed in a 3 month overall time frame and all major materials used were supplied by STI Members who helped make this a highly successful project for all parties involved.

This pressure vessel project was fabricated for use in the Phillips 66 Refinery in Rodeo, CA, for their LPG Recovery Project. It was fabricated using clad material of 7/8”thick SA 516-70N for the backer, with 1/8” thick 316L cladding. The overall height is 153’, an inside diameter of 84”, a total weight of over 263,000 lbs. Included inside this demethanizer are 35 double pass trays, along with 10 single pass trays. This vessel took more than 6500 man hours, and was completed in 11 months. For its almost 2,000 mile journey, it took 10 days, at an average speed of 40 miles per hour, to travel from Oklahoma City to Rodeo, CA.

(1) Cold Separator Vessel for a helium plant. 72” I.D. x 40’ -0” seam to seam, skirt-supported, vertical vessel with accompanying ladders and platforms. All nozzles were integral reinforcement type. Design parameters: 1,100 psig at -320 deg. F & 250 deg. F. Material type: SA-240-304 stainless steel. Shipping weight was 102,000 lbs.

This job was an emergency order for a customer who had an entire plant shut down. The customer required a vessel in as short a time frame as possible in order to get the plant operational again. This urgent requirement necessitated working our shop 24/7 to accommodate the needed schedule. From contract award to completion of fabrication was 10 weeks total. We were able to secure major materials delivered to our shop within 3 days. With material secured, our company worked around the clock to finish all long seaming within 5 days of receipt of material.

Our scope included design, procurement, fabrication, testing, installation of internals and shipment to the jobsite. Ultimately, this vessel was delivered 1 week ahead of promised date, successfully completing a very quick turnaround for our customer.

This past summer we worked on a challenging project. We built the largest shop built double wall stainless steel tank we believe that has ever been built and transported in one piece. The tank was 33 feet in diameter and 65 feet tall. We built it on a very tight schedule and delivered 4 days early.

Our team does big things. We are proud to participate in a carbon capture facility. Building a very BIG double wall stainless steel amine storage tank. Amine is one of the liquids that attaches itself to the C02 and captures it so that the CO2 can become a sell-able product rather than an environmental waste.

Our tank was loaded on a trailer and traveled 400 miles. Because of the size of the tank it took a week to get to the site and it took two trucks and over 200 feet of trailer to get it there. Along the way utility crews cut and lifted power lines so that the tank could get to site.

This tank was purchased by the client to replace a failing concrete tank.

The customer orders a tank with two compartments but to store the same product of gasoline. The two compartments are to make an inner tank maintenance without suspending the service.

This is a 2,358 gallon open top carbon / stainless steel single wall vertical process tank used in the production of adhesives and sealants. Unique features of this tank are its custom fabricated bolt-on stainless steel cone bottom and the custom fabricated bolt-on leg system with leg extensions to accommodate a pumping rack and load cells. The bottom cone is stainless steel with a custom bolted flange system which makes it removable for easy access for cleaning with the removal of one of the legs. The bolt-on leg system incorporates two (2) ½” thick x 12” wide reinforcing plates that are rolled to the tank diameter to support the tank along with several angle support rings for the tank shell. The tank system was designed to fit inside a plant with very little room for tank installation.

This product is commonly known as Fuel Transfer tanks or Slip tanks. While a large percentage of these tanks are built to non-code specifications, this design was tested and found compliant with international United Nations Intermediate Bulk Container standards. Typically, current non-code tank offerings are limited to 450L of fuel or perhaps slightly larger where state laws allow for an Agricultural exemption. However, by submitting the design to the DOT / UN IBC standards, fuel can now be safely transported in the back of pickup trucks or larger service vehicles up to 3000 L or as high as 4500 L, in some jurisdictions without any worry about violating DOT Hazardous Material Regulations.

The required performance tests for this product are as follows:
1. The tanks must be tested to withstand 30 psi without rupture and the operating pressure is 7 psi.
2. The tanks filled with water must be dropped from a minimum of 4 ft without rupture.
3. The tanks full of water must have pumps and fill/vent devices installed, fastened to a test frame using the certified tie down method and rolled over to ensure no leakage occurs
4. Tanks lift lugs must be tested to 2x the weight of the tank filled with water.
5. Tanks must be fastened to a vibration table and the resonant frequencies between 3 and 100 Hz determined. The tanks are then subject to a dwell of 15 minutes at 0.50 g force at each of the lower 4 resonant frequencies.

Since these tanks are subject to road accelerations and vibrations, the critical design elements relate to keeping the resonant frequencies as high as possible, preferably above 20Hz, and the acceleration gains at the resonant frequencies as low as possible. As well, metal fatigue is the primary cause of tank failure.

As far as customer requirements, the shape of the tank must be as low profile as possible to improve driver visibility. This requirement made the existing half round cylindrical designs no longer acceptable and a new tank x-section was needed. As well, a baffle design was needed to restrict fuel sloshing as well as give stiffness to the new rectangular tank shape.

With these factors in mind, the preliminary designs for this product were developed by subjecting 3D CAD tank models to modal analysis to determine the most cost effective reinforcing for the tank ends. It was determined that a spherical embossed shape with ribs extending into the rectangular tank corners gave the highest resonant frequencies.

Furthermore, an endurance limit test was designed by subjecting two existing cylindrical top designs to the vibration test at the lowest resonance frequency for 1 million cycles. This was 20 times longer than the required UN IBC performance test.

From these full scale tests the most economical tank shape, internal baffle design and tank tie down components were determined and the tank was then certified and approved by the Federal Transport officials.

Currently, these tanks are now being manufactured using a modular rotating jig table that can adapt to assembling the 6 tank designs with capacities ranging from 285L to 830L. The tanks are coated using a phosphate wash and powder coat paint line.

Six Monoscour Filter Water Treatment tanks were fabricated from 2205 duplex stainless steel. Each set of three tanks incorporated a split box on top feeding the tanks. The tank dimensions were 12’ diameter by 20’ high. Overall dimensions are 15’ diameter by 20’-8” height. The tanks incorporated three separate compartments for filtration and cleaning, and included internal and external piping, handrails and caged ladders.

The operation Monoscour filter tanks consist of two major operations: filtration and cleaning (commonly called backwashing). The two operations occur sequentially, with the cleaning phase made up of discrete steps. The particulate matter is removed by passing the feed stream through a multimedia filter bed, consisting of sand and anthracite during the service operation. The depth and types of media are selected based on the individual characteristics of the water being treated. The suspended particles are removed through various mechanisms, which include straining, adsorption, interception, impaction, sedimentation, and flocculation.

The final assembled superstructure consisted of four (4) main sub-assemblies to produce a 150′-0″ wide x 180′-0″ long pile cap framework used for rebuilding an existing wharf in the Suisun Bay region of California. The fully assembled structure required exact fabrication precision as it had to sit onto twelve pilings designed to support the new infrastructure used to unload crude oil in preparation for refining into diesel, gasoline, and other petroleum products. The largest subassembly weighed over 330,000 pounds with the entire framework weighing 442.5 tons.

Components used to construct the frames primarily consisted of 5′-0 diameter pipe fabricated from 1.5″ to 3.5″ thick plate. Several of the connections required heat treating at temperatures of 1750 degree F. Exact joint fit up was a must and required use of a custom built cutting system to produce near perfect radially cut and beveled joints. All joints required full penetration welds and 100% radiography inspection.

Smaller shop built sections were delivered by trucks to a fabrication yard accessible by barge. After completion of the four frame sections they were transported to the load out dock by large crawlers capable of lifting and moving over 1.0 million pounds. A barge based derrick crane then lifted the frames onto a 54′-0″ wide x 200′-0″ long barge for delivery to the project site. All of the framing materials were exterior sandblasted and painted prior to delivery.

Stainless steel Autoclave with fully functional hinged door assembly for ease of product loading and unloading. Vessel used to evaluate propulsion components in a simulated high altitude environment. Material of construction is 316 stainless steel with 1/2″, 3/4″ shell thickness and 1″ thick full length internal floor.

Its size is 12 feet in diameter x 25 feet long. Weight is 41,000 pounds. Vessel contains two rectangular vacuum rated personnel access doors, numerous real time viewing ports and two instrumentation console attachment banks for live data collection. Autoclave’s exterior surface is insulated for maintaining controlled temperature demands. Vessel was manufactured to withstand full vacuum at low temperatures. Vessel built and welded in accordance to ASME Section VIII, Division 1 code requirements.

Fort Collins, Colorado is located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and is home to Colorado State University. The residents of Fort Collins appreciate nature and all it has to offer, as well as conservation. Many residents owe their livelihood to the oil and gas being drilled to the east and the coal being mined to the north. This harmony between industry and nature can be seen in the work being performed by the Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conservation Laboratory (EECL). The EECL was founded in 1992. The laboratory was started in an abandoned power plant owned by the City of Fort Collins. This facility, situated on the Poudre River, had been stripped of almost everything; windows broken, heating units destroyed, smokestacks and coal bin removed. It was an abandoned eyesore prior to the EECL purchasing it. Dr. Brian Wilson, the director of the EECL, had a vision to restore the Power Plant to its original industrial beauty. In 2012 Colorado State University started construction and renovations on the privately funded Powerhouse Energy Institute. This $18.5 million power plant renovation was completed in 2015 with the final touch—the reintroduction of four new smokestacks and a new coal bin.

Just like the City of Fort Collins and the EECL, the smokestacks and coal bin are a marriage of conservation and industry. Colorado State University’s Engineering Department utilized their construction management students to conceptualize the project. These students worked in concert with our engineering and sales staff to develop a formal request for funding for this final renovation to the Lab. Once funded our team of professionals worked directly with EECL staff to finalize all construction details and get final city construction permits. The smokestacks and coal bin were totally shop built and coated. The five foot diameter by thirty foot tall smokestacks were reattached at their original locations on the power plant roof, however, this time around they are not billowing smoke, but rather generating electricity through wind turbines located at the top of the stack. The coal bin, which was originally a fifteen foot diameter by fifteen foot tall cone roof type structure was reinvented as a green house and placed back in its original location. Shop Fabrication took 12 Weeks to complete and on-site Installation was performed in 8 hours. All project related materials, installation labor, engineering and drafting were donated to CSU. Today the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory is a 100,000 Square Foot LEED certified facility.

A heat treating facility urgently needed buffer overflow storage for anhydrous ammonia used in their treatment process. Any overflow ammonia coming out of their process will be first diverted to a 5,000 gallon (7′-6″d x 15’h) API 620 low pressure tank and be diffused in through stored water.

If the overflow rate exceeds the absorption capacity of the 5,000 gallon tank then additional overflow will be diverted to the 750 gallon (4’d x 8’h) atmospheric tank.

These controls are required due to new state regulations regarding the release of this gas for upset or abnormal operating conditions.

The tanks were fully fabricated and coated and installed on site in time to allow the customer to continue operating after the effective date of the new regulations.