53 replies to this topic

[Aussierob]

Yep. The only thing that got kept from the old Yans were the tower steel and station masts.

[liftmech]

After 8 1/2 hours of OT on Sunday night, we got the rebuilt motor back up and into the lift. We ran it for 10 chair lengths and called it a night (morning?) We rigged a 3-part primary rig attached to a snowcat, with a Tirfor hoist for fine adjustment. Then when we ran out of headroom, we switched to a 6-ton Ratcliffe hoist for the final pull. Pictures forthcoming- it's breakfast time.

[highspeedquad]

So will the Super Bee be running more like it would on normal operations now? (even though the end of the ski season is creeping up on us)

[Kicking Horse]

My guess it's back to Normal Op's for it.

[caroth]

liftmech, on Apr 5 2005, 08:28 AM, said:

After 8 1/2 hours of OT on Sunday night, we got the rebuilt motor back up and into the lift. We ran it for 10 chair lengths and called it a night (morning?) We rigged a 3-part primary rig attached to a snowcat, with a Tirfor hoist for fine adjustment. Then when we ran out of headroom, we switched to a 6-ton Ratcliffe hoist for the final pull. Pictures forthcoming- it's breakfast time.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey thanks for working so hard on that lift. Its guys like you that make Copper one of my favorite areas to play at!

[liftmech]

You're quite welcome :). We don't get much recognition from the general public except when something goes wrong- then it's 'why isn't the lift running yet?'- so it's nice to hear every once in a while.
As promised, photos. 1) Slopes was quite helpful in providing a cat and operator to drag the motor up to the top. 2) Not a lot of room to back the war wagon in. 3) A rigging rat's nest.

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•  war_wagon.jpg (89.15K)
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•  motor_arrives.jpg (122.18K)
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•  s_nest.jpg (91.87K)
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[liftmech]

1) A better shot of the rigging mess. 2) We ran the live end of the Tirfor cable out one of the windows to the back of the cat (just visible outside). 3) The motor barely fit up through the flor.

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•  more_rigging.jpg (86.34K)
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•  line_through_window.jpg (82.27K)
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•  1_inch_clearance.jpg (83.85K)
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[liftmech]

1) Finally up into the motor room. This was right when we figured out we'd inadvertently hooked the Ratcliffe onto the point of its hook. The motor dropped an inch or so when we freed the hook, and scared the living daylights out of us. (I should mention here the the motor weighs 7500 pounds). No harm done, though. 2) It only needs to go four more inches, but at one quarter of an inch per stoke on the Ratcliffe, it takes a while. 3) Nate (one of our electricians) rejoices at setting the motor onto its mounts by reeenacting a bit of Sabbath.

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•  just_a_little_higher.jpg (69.96K)
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•  there_it_B.jpg (79.46K)
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•  Nate_was_here.jpg (80.9K)
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[liftmech]

Apparently I mixed up the order of the photos in the last post, and I'm too lazy to fix it. #1 and #2 should be swapped. Anyway-
1) Install driveshaft (yours truly pictured, Luke was on the other end because the thing is heavy and takes two people. 2) Install blower motor and filter housing and away she goes!

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•  driveshaft_installation.jpg (51.42K)
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•  ready_to_go.jpg (76.05K)
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[highspeedquad]

Great, just a couple weeks to get it fixed. I'm glad to hear that the lift is more or less back to normal.

[Zage]

What was the original motor that blew? ABB, BBC, GE ect...

[liftmech]

GE

[Duck]

Those photos are great. The forced-air cooling fan on that thing is huuuge!

What kind of torque does a motor that size generate? The largest motor I've ever used on a machine is 4 kW (~5 hp). I'm assuming it's slightly larger than that? ;)

-Iain

[KZ]

Thats probably around 800-1000 hp so its a bit bigger then what you have used ;)

[Kicking Horse]

it's a 1400hp motor.

This post has been edited by Kicking Horse: 07 April 2005 - 11:02 AM

[liftmech]

Actually no, it isn't. There are two 700 horsepower motors, so the total combined output is 1400.

We got pictures back from the repair shop; the failure was caused by an insulation failure. A little background on how a DC motor works in in order for this. There are dozens of coils in the armature, which is the rotating part of the motor. The get their power from the commutator, which is a smooth copper drum made up of twice number of copper bars as there are coils in the armature. Each coil is connected to two bars. The bars are insulated from each other and from the shaft they are mounted on. Carbon brushes are pressed by springs against the surface of the commutator, and transmit the current from the drive to the comm. On our motor, the insulating 'doughnut' that keeps current from reaching the shaft failed, causing 480 VDC at whatever amperage the drive was pulling (probably around 300-400 amps) to go straight to ground via the motor shaft. There was a nice-sized hole in the comm.

[Aussierob]

Any chance you could post a few pics of the machinery layout. Particularly the motors and the gearbox connections. (drive arrangement) Thanks

[SkiBachelor]

Here are some pictures, probably not the best technical shots though.

 super.jpg (62.09K)
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 super3.jpg (57.72K)
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 super6.jpg (53.88K)
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[Aussierob]

That shows what I wanted. I was trying to picture the machinery layout. I see they put a motor on each side of the gearbox with one in between the diesels. I like how Kissling use the mechanical input for the auxilliaries instead of the belt drive on Doppelmayrs.

[Kicking Horse]

liftmech, on Apr 8 2005, 04:15 AM, said:

Actually no, it isn't. There are two 700 horsepower motors, so the total combined output is 1400.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

just going by what is on skilifts.org for the SuperBee.