Hyperbaric oxygen chambers moving and lifting with pneumatic rollers

One new built hospital in China north city faced a problem of installation one set of Hyperbaric oxygen chamber. The site nearby chamber foundation can not has one big enough crane to set up for hoisting chambers for installation.

There are two hyperbaric oxygen chambers weigh 28 and 30 tons respectively, need to be installed to precast foundation then welded together. The two tanks need to pass 60 meters length of underground garage roof with only 30 KN per square meters allowable load, cross a 50 cm wide post-pouring belt, then climb 1.8 m high to reach a platform, move 8 meters more to reach the installation foundation.
Well known in heavy lifting and transport field, Eversafe Marine engineering was invited to provide a solution for this difficult problem, the process of whole building is delayed by the chamber installation.
After site checking and discussion with the construction party, Eversafe Engineering team offered a Roadmap for chambers installation: using marine airbags also called pneumatic rollers to move the tank to their installation position which include the 60 m move on flat and climbing 1.8 m high platform, install pillars to hoist chambers for installation. Three weeks later, this proposal is approved by the first party.

On 7th January 2021, Eversafe engineering team started to wrok on the project and completed it two weeks later.

Performance Procedure:

Using 300 T crane hoist chambers from the truck and put them on the rack
Connect chambers with racks, insert wooden sleeper
Hoist chambers with racks, place them on inflated pneumatic rollers
Connect racks with pulling and holding winches
Move chambers with pneumatic rollers on underground garage roof
Using airbags to make chambers climb to 1.8 m high platform
Using trolleys to move chambers on beams
Install pillars for hoisting
Hoist chambers with slings and chain blocks
Adjust chamber position while they are low down to foundation for installation

Highlights

The site for hyperbaric oxygen chambers moving and installation is very limited, need to dismantle scaffolds to make tank getting through then restore them soon. Chambers need to adjust direction while moving, every moving step has to be precisely controlled, because no room to reverse to mend the error.
Low bearing capacity of the ground for airbag rolling on (underground garage roof) is also a big difficulty to be overcomed.

Achievement:

This project is a perfect combination of multiple heavy lifting and moving technologies.
Marine airbags have big diameter can lift and roll heavy at 0.5-3 meters height. Trolleys have various sizes, allow to move heavies in very limit space. And both pneumatic rollers and trolleys can adjust the object ‘s direction easily during moving process.
Heavy moving and lifting with marine airbags is proved can achieve the precise control in millimeter level.