OREANDA-NEWS. February 13, 2013. The Steel Structure Company of China First Metallurgical Construction Group (CFMCC Group) announced that it has made a new breakthrough on the installation works of spherical tanks for Zhejiang Pinghu Weixing Energy Co., Ltd., reported the press-centre of MCC Group.

The Company off CFMCC Group is undertaking the installation contract for eight propylene spherical tanks (each with a capacity of 4,000 cubic meters) and four propane tanks (each with a capacity of 6,000 cubic meters), which are the largest ones in Asia. Basing upon the previous experiences and the bold innovation, the Project Division achieved substantial progress in technical process for the propane tanks, according to which the strut and the equatorial plate could be separately lifted and installed. In this way, the first propane tank of 6,000 cubic meters was successfully fixed up on January 31, 2013, only taking a period of 8 days.

The propane tank is designed with a shell thickness of 52mm, the weight of the strut and the equatorial plate totals 18 tons. The diameter of the tank is 22.6m, the lifting height of the crane during lifting operation is 15m and the strut length is 10m. In accordance with the traditional process, the lifting and installation works for such a tank shall cost 12 days. In the interest to shorten the construction period, the Project Division pooled the wisdom and efforts of everyone and eventually worked out the new operational method.

The installation work for the first tank was started on January 24, 2013. Since it was the first time to utilize the new process, the Project Division made a strict control on the operational procedures (in an order of strut lifting, rod assembly, equator, the lower temperate zone, the lower pole zone, the upper temperate zone and the upper pole zone), as well as the strut length and the verticality during the lifting operation, so as to ensure the strut to be fixed on the designated point of the foundation and thus guarantee the quality of the lifting operation.

It took only two and half a day to finish the assembly work of the equator zone, about one and half a day shorter than that under traditional manner and marking a great improvement of the working efficiency. Thanks to the continuous efforts of the project staff, the lifting and assembly work for the first propane tank of 6,000 cubic meters was completed within 8 days on January 31, about 4 days in advance of the original schedule, which has deemed to be significant for ensuring the project implementation progress and the safety and quality.