Shannon has the tools to insulate large or hard-to-access components

Customers regularly call on Shannon to insulate large or hard-to-access components with removable and reusable thermal and acoustic insulation. With its CAD-CNC-ERP design and manufacturing process, Shannon’s customers have given the award-winning manufacturer kudos for tackling challenging and extreme insulation jobs efficiently and effectively.

Sometimes, insulation jobs are challenging due to the actual componentry itself. More complex equipment may require multiple blanket specs, and thus, multiple blankets to accommodate different conditions. Some industrial gas turbines are a great example of this, as one side needs heat protection, while the other does not.

“Because of the size and uniqueness of the machinery, we use a couple different specs,” said Ron Smith, inside sales manager for Shannon. “One side needs just a regular acoustic blanket, while the other side is hot.”

Industrial gas turbines for electric power generation and pumping systems also provide Shannon another logistical challenge: size. The size and shape of the average turbine makes a traditional energy survey a bit more involved. For these projects, Shannon consults with the client to gain more information about the equipment.

“With industrial turbines, we can work with as-built drawings directly from the client,” said Smith.

With large and hard-to-access components, or remote work environments, Shannon’s team says not being able to directly observe the equipment is often the greatest challenge. Oil rigs, for example, have compressors, which require quality removable and reusable acoustic insulation to be safe to work around. Sometimes due to logistical and/or production issues Shannon representatives do not have the ability to view or measure the equipment on-site.

“Some of these unusual applications call for acoustic blankets, like in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on an oil rig,” said Smith. “It makes it a little more challenging, because you aren’t always able to go to the site to analyze the situation. So, we find other ways, including a proprietary library of componentry we keep.”

In those situations, collaboration between the client and Shannon remains crucial. The client provides data to insulate large or hard-to-access components, which Shannon’s design team matches with the ideal blanket or shield specification and then translates that into a quality reusable insulation blanket for the application.