Case studies

Mirage has designed and developed a machine for it's sister company Claxton to recover a drilling slot by drilling and pinning the 90m conductor just above the severance point and thus allowing the inner casings to bear the weight of the conductor. The machine was based around its already tried and proven double drill unit and modified for ROV operation.

Mirage supplied a standard 2 axis MR2200 that was centralised to the division slot that had badly corroded and required welding and re machining to original specification in situ. The machine has a two bolt mounting system that allows both fast mounting and also fast alignment. The machine is then levelled and aligned from the flange face and the division plate slot is machined. Time savings are large because in most cases the exchanger can be left in place or bought into a work shop and the tubes can be left in place

With our portable slitting machine we were asked to provide an accurate method of cutting the worn and damaged blade tips off efficiently and precisely so that time could be saved in the refurbishment process and that this would lead to also an improvement in the health and safety record of this operation.  The BLS 760 shortened the blade cutting time from 2 hours to 8 minutes and resulted in 4 complete turbine refurbishment projects with 0 accidents or LTI.

We have developed a machine to drill out the blade retaining pins when refurbishing turbine blades. The machine removed the need to use pistol drills with fixtures and reduced the volume of tooling consumed in the drilling operation. The PD760 also improved the accuracy of the pin drilling that resulted in a saving of 6 hours in the refurbishment process.

A 26-1/2" conductor required a 1.3 x 0.45m window machining with 50mm radii 9m from the sea bed for a mud dump vent clamp to be fitted. Cold cutting was specified due to the 26-1/2" conductor housing 13-3/8" casing and a power line that could not be damaged during cutting.

A 30" pipeline required the seam weld crown removing for clamp installation and the anode doubler plates removing for relocation at 90m water depth. Cold cutting was specified and a pre requisite from the client was to guarantee that the machine could not to cut into the parent pipeline.

Mirage were asked to provide a machine to machine both a 37.5 degree weld prep and also J prep on plates used for pressure vessel manufacture. The plates were up to 120mm thick carbon steel, up to 12ft long and 8 ft wide and were being prepped by hand. Once prepped the plates were then rolled and welded. The client wanted to be able to quickly mount and align the machine and then fix to the plate using magnets.

Mirage were asked to provide a solution to machine both sides of heat exchangers up to 3m diameter. Our standard flange facing machine range were supplied with specially designed mounting and jacking plates that were clamped to the heat exchanger with expanding bolts and then centralised and levelled prior to mounting the machine. Machining time reduced and machine handling time reduced by 2 hours

We have developed a machine to machine the steam sealing faces of a turbine case whilst they are bolted together. We are able to machine both HP and LP stages in one setting and have also machined welded stainless steel seats where complete refurbishment of the sealing face was a client requirement.

A leading Australian wind tower manufacturer required the end flange of the tower to be machined within 1 hour and within a flatness tolerance of 0.30mm at 2.7m diameter. The fabrication required the WP4300 to clamp into the tower and machine the flange.

With our gantry mill and milling rail system we were able to machine the casing split lines back to the original specifications of within 0.05mm (0,002”) of flatness over the whole split line. The machines were aligned using laser technology and then the welded areas were machined back to the original faces.

We have developed a machine to machine the steam sealing faces of a turbine case whilst they are bolted together. We are able to machine both HP and LP stages in one setting and have also machined welded stainless steel seats where complete refurbishment of the sealing face was a client requirement.

A leading European manufacturer of wind turbines required the root end face of the composite rotor to be machined at 2.4m diameter. The rotor blade had a composite structure with both steel and GRP. The flatness tolerance was to be within 0.20mm at 2.4m and machining time within 1 hour. Mirage has now developed a system for production where no crane is required and it is fully portable. The system utilises a patented hydraulic chuck system to mount into the blade and then machines the root end face inserts flat. Current designs can cater for diameters up to 3.5m (61.5m blades) but with the ever expanding blade lengths we can adapt our orbital milling range to the new rotor blade designs, or client specific root end mounting diameters.

When decommissioning the platforms wells Mirage have designed a system of drilling and pinning the multiple casing strings. The system has been used extensively in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico to pin up to 48” multiple casing strings and piles in both surface and sub sea applications with 4,6,10 and 12" spindles and cutters available.