Aluminum Company Plant Shutdown
In December 2019, a channel partner was contacted by a large aluminum company Utilities Electrical Specialist for an upcoming shutdown at their plant. And as with any shutdown and potential turnaround, plants look to rebuild or replace equipment based on age, hours, capacity, and usefulness. For this particular shutdown, it would include rebuilding their existing 9000 CFM Centrifugal compressor which provided instrument and plant air at 100PSIG. They anticipated this rebuild would take 2-3 months if everything went according to plan, and while they had a backup, it was not in good shape and in danger of breaking down.
After further discussions with the customer, it was revealed they had done this project in the past with a local compressor repair company utilizing diesel units. But their experience and the high costs associated with diesel led them to look for a better solution. They were ideally looking for a similar size centrifugal compressor to the unit they were taking down. Our channel partner knew that Critical Rental Solutions was just the right company to contact to provide a reliable solution based on the customers specifications. In this case the customer was looking for approximately 9000ICFM at 100PSIG, and that was right in the wheelhouse of what Critical Rental Solutions could provide.
After some back and forth with the customer on the technical parameters, and through the leveraging of the existing channel partner relationship, the customer decided in late February 2020 to move forward with a delivery for March 16th, and startup on March 17th. We had our technician onsite to setup, test and train the personal on the operations of the unit. Once the unit was online the customer decided to continue with the Critical Rental Solutions unit providing air in place of their backup until the rebuild was complete.
The rebuild project lasted approximately 6 months, which was 3 months longer than anticipated, but the customer was comfortable with the reliability of our centrifugal running their plant during the rebuild of existing machine. When looking to rebuild or replace equipment, it is better to prepare for potential setbacks and plan for business continuity. With Critical Rental Solutions, you can find the equipment and accessories you need to manage projects large and small.
