A new challenge for Walter Tosto’s team
Walter Tosto’s operational team is dealing with an item of extraordinary size.
In the Ortona seafront workshop, one of the largest columns ever built is being completed: the Ethylene Fractionator C-4330, a “tunnel” exceeding 87 meters in length, 4.5 meters in diameter and 600 tons in weight, which requested the usage of more than 250.000 bolts, 500.000 nuts and 20.000 components of several size.
Walter Tosto’s operators, who are currently working on the assembly of 147 internal plates (one every 50 cm), operate inside the huge tube with three teams at the same time, in three different areas of the column in order to reduce, as much as possible, the completion time.
Few days ago, the personnel of the company which commissioned the item, visited Walter Tosto’s workshop to monitor the execution progress. They congratulated the team for the methodical organization, the preparation of the plates on the ground and for the accuracy in assembling the internal components; these are essential requirements to fulfill the expected process results.
The equipment is expected to be completed by March 16, 2015: six weeks earlier than the scheduled delivery time (April 30, 2015) established by contract. In this regard, the client company has decided to grant an additional reward to Walter Tosto for the achievement of this very positive and unexpected result.
After completion, the carbon steel column will be shipped by sea and installed on an Ethylene plant in the United States of America.