On Jan. 17 at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, NASA simultaneously fired four RS-25 rocket engines on its B-2 test stand. The 4ea. RS-25 rocket engines are part of NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS) for its Artemis program that will return humans to the moon and beyond. In order to simultaneously test the rocket engines, NASA's High Pressure Industrial Water (HPIW) Plant had to be upgraded to provide additional water. The HPIW is used for cooling the exhaust and acoustic suppression, and it is visible as the signature steam that exits the test stand during firing.
Alfred Conhagen Inc. was responsible for designing and upgrading much of the pumping equipment used for the upgrade of the HPIW Plant. The new pumping equipment had to fit in the existing pump building and run parallel to the existing HPIW pumps. To accomplish this, Conhagen designed and manufactured individual baseplates for each of the four major components of the drive train: the pump, the variable speed fluid drive, the 4,500-horsepower synchronous motor and the 300-horsepower starting motor. Conhagen was responsible for selecting and procuring all of the pump train components and the auxiliaries required for a complete installation. After fabrication and precision machining of the baseplates was completed at Conhagen's Kenner, Louisiana, facility, the components were mated to each other and a trial installation and alignment was completed.
Conhagen's field service crews then determined how to get the equipment from Conhagen's shop into the existing HPIW building. Without available lifting capabilities in the building, Conhagen's lift and installation plan utilized specially designed cranes mounted on large forklifts. Once the baseplates were in place, Conhagen leveled and aligned each baseplate relative to each other, anchored, and epoxy grouted them in place. Lastly, equipment was laser aligned, coupled, auxiliaries installed, commissioned and eventually test run.
Conhagen's portion of this project was completed on time, on budget, and without any commissioning or operational issues.
For more information, visit www.conhagen.com or call (504) 471-9998.