R. Baker & Son Saves Client Over $100K on Rigging Project

Last winter, R. Baker & Son was contacted by a consulting engineer we’d worked with in the past asking us to take a look at a rigging project. Another rigging contractor had previously been called in by a third-party facilities maintenance company to assess a project in which several large motors, gearboxes, and agitators would need to be replaced in eight 18-foot-tall stainless-steel tanks. The other contractor had proposed removing roof sections above each of the eight tanks and using a large crane to rig the agitators through the openings, which afterward would require extensive patching. The engineer had concerns about this plan, and rightly so. 

R. Baker & Son examined one of the agitators from a manway located at the bottom of the tank and we could see that the blades were bolted to a hub on the shaft. Next, we had one of our millwrights enter the tank to examine the shaft up close. Above the first set of agitator blades was a sanitary coupling where the shaft could be separated into two equal-sized lengths, which meant that the assemblies could be removed from the tanks without the use of a crane or having to cut holes in the roof. The owners had not been aware that the shafts were in two pieces and could be decoupled. 

It was obvious that the other rigging contractor had only examined the agitators from the manways, where the agitator blades blocked their view of the center coupling, and had not bothered to enter the tanks for a closer inspection. 

R. Baker & Son provided a proposal for removing the eight agitators over the course of four days for $62,000 less than the other contractor’s proposal and was hired to execute the project. Moreover, armed with the information that the shaft was constructed in two pieces, the owner contacted the manufacturer of the new agitators and asked whether the shafts could be reconditioned and fitted with new blades, which would not have been possible had the shafts come in one piece. The manufacturer agreed, yielding tens of thousands of dollars more in project savings.

About R. Baker & Son All Industrial Services

R. Baker & Son All Industrial Services, a Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE), in business since 1935, is a premier specialized contractor operating in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, with over one hundred employees and an exemplary safety record (we have been directly involved in six sites that received VPP OSHA Safety Awards). R. Baker & Son is financially strong, with bonding capabilities of over $20 million. Capabilities include industrial and commercial demolition, rigging, machinery- and plant-moving, dismantling, decommissioning, plant and equipment relocation, interior demolition, selective demolition, warehousing, wrecking and razing, millwright, plant reconfigurations, heavy rigging, salvage, environmental services, remediation, decontamination, abatement, and investment and asset recovery.

R. Baker & Son - All Industrial Services
190 Boundary Road
Marlboro, NJ 07746
732-222-3553

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