Accelerating projects: Rapid response expedited fabrication delivers in record time

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The need for expedited fabrication projects can arise from various situations, from unforeseen circumstances to discovery during planned outages or turnarounds and unplanned shutdowns.

No matter the cause, you potentially face costly downtime and require an accelerated fabrication schedule to get your facility back up and running.

The challenge of expedited fabrication projects lies in both capabilities and relationships. Not all contractors have the breadth of capabilities or staff necessary for such projects, and these projects require a tremendous amount of trust. Critical work often needs to begin before there’s a signed agreement to meet tight turnaround windows. An experienced fabricator with a proven history of meeting accelerated schedules can help you navigate your situation, make decisions, adapt and work together to deliver what you need.

Our rapid response model focuses on getting the expedited project to the shop floor as quickly as possible, which starts with shortening the planning time. We condense the timeline by putting tasks on parallel paths. This can reduce the time needed to fabricate a piece of equipment by more than 50%.

Collaborating under pressure

Expedited fabrication calls for creative thinking and innovative processes. Successful projects require production teams with experience in reactive engineering, design-builds, short lead times and materials management — all critical elements within an accelerated schedule. All stakeholders, from both the customer and the fabricator, including engineers, project managers, procurement and quality control, must be aligned throughout the process to execute with that much speed without sacrificing safety and quality.

Our success has come from dedicating a team of multidisciplined project managers and engineers, which allows different departments to work efficiently together during moments of high stress when multitasking is required. And that team remains in constant communication throughout the project to keep planning, execution and inspection aligned to reduce project delays.

Built for expedited fabrication

Beyond the challenges presented in planning and engineering an expedited project, fabricating on an accelerated schedule requires tremendous shop capacity and manpower. The work can only be done quickly if craftworkers are available, there’s shop space to do it in and the fabricator has the equipment to perform the work and minimize handoffs.

Our shop capacity and craft workforce allow us to push the limits on what’s achievable in a short amount of time. We even fabricate the heads in-house, allowing us to expedite manufacturing on a piece of your equipment that often has the longest lead time. So, if we can work together and get the drawings to the shop floor as quickly as possible, that keeps expedited materials on a critical path and keeps our welders welding as fast as possible.

Delivering what’s nearly impossible

We’ve had tremendous success using our rapid response model for time-critical projects — delivering reactors and vessels in as little as 10 days. While not an easy model to implement, rapid response has proven its value on multiple Enerfab projects, saving our customers time and costs due to downtime.

  • We answered the call for a reactor rebuild for a chemical-industry customer. Our shop team replaced the bottom portion of the vessel and associated head/nozzles with new C22 material. They also fabricated and installed an internal coil, field-repaired a body flange and installed a liner plate for damaged overlay all in 10 days.
  • We fabricated this 6’ diameter by 75’ long 316/316L column — with insulation and trial fit of ladders and platforms — in just 19 days. All the work was completed in our shop with no need for subcontractors.
  • We fabricated a shift gas separator for a different chemical customer that was smaller but very thick, high pressure and included custom forgings. Quoted as approximately six weeks, we delivered this reactor four weeks to the day from when we received the inquiry.
  • We built three duplex 2205 pressure vessels for chemical applications. This project was quoted to be completed in five to six weeks, and we delivered in five weeks.
  • We completed a reactor head repair for a refinery customer. We inspected and repaired the overlay on the internal surface of the reactor head and installed a new C22 overlay with MIG and SAW weld processes in just 12 days.
  • We replaced a vessel that had to be removed from service, fabricating it in three weeks from purchase order to delivery. This code vessel required post-weld heat treatment, hydro testing and a multi-coat paint system. Once completed, this vessel traveled more than 650 miles and was offloaded and set in place perfectly within 13 hours.
  • Our chemical customer faced an unexpected shutdown to replace two heavily corroded ASME Code pressure vessels. One tank required normalized material, helium leak testing, and Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing (PAUT) and was delivered in 16 days. The second required 100% radiographic testing (RT) and was delivered in 14 days.

Ready for your unexpected challenge

When facing potential costly downtime from an unplanned replacement for critical process equipment, expedited fabrication with an experienced fabricator can save you a lot of money. Our rapid response model has proven successful for our customers, reducing months of work to a few weeks.

With the right team in place, trust between our organizations and constant communication among all stakeholders, we can execute successful projects against seemingly impossible timelines without sacrificing the quality our customers expect from us.

For more information, visit enerfab.com.

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