REFINERY MAINTENANCE CASE STUDY

Meeting precise customer refinery maintenance specifications in a safety-first environment has been a hallmark of Brand Energy's work at the largest oil-sands crude oil production facility in the world.

During more than a decade of work at the oil refinery, Brand Energy has undertaken a wide range of industrial refinery maintenance and industrial construction projects. The work has ranged from custom-designing an expandable coker platform to creating highly specialized access platforms for complex environments.

When the cladding and insulation on the Unit 8-1 burner line at Syncrude's Coker Unit needed to be replaced, there were few supports that would allow technicians to construct industrial scaffolding from grade. Brand Energy erected a Sure Lock landing platform 160 ft. from grade and utilized a pneumatically operated swingstage suspended scaffold to access the remainder of the line.

To replace Syncrude's 15-year-old coker platform, Brand Energy specially designed an expandable coker platform that reduced the number of operators needed, shortened assembly time and improved weight-to-strength ratio, all while maintaining the existing 5,000-lb capacity.

After ten years without a lost time incident, Brand Energy was chosen from among more than 130 contractors to receive Syncrude's top safety award for 2000. In his presentation speech, COO Jim Carter commended Brand Energy for its ability to work in unique and challenging situations, "from the tip of the drag lines to the pipe racks in upgrading."