Original title: Inventions of front-line employees to solve major problems in maintenance operations

Worker's Daily - China Industrial Network reporter Peng Bing Correspondent Song Yang Wang Tao

"Although the manufacturing cost of this little thing is less than 30 yuan, it can triple the turning efficiency of the unit". On May 22, when the reporter saw Cao Kuan, the winner of the "National May Day Labor Medal", he was holding a shiny metal ring in his hand, which is his latest research and development achievement - special turning gear.

Cao Kuan, 32 years old this year, is the foreman of the first maintenance team in the eastern overhaul workshop of Jilin Petrochemical Construction and Repair Company, a senior technician of fitters, a "national technical expert", and one of the "top ten outstanding youth" of PetroChina. He is particularly fond of technological innovation, and recently "stared" at the reciprocating compressor unit in the hydrocracking workshop of Jilin Petrochemical Refinery.

"In the past maintenance process of reciprocating compressor units, the measurement and adjustment of dead center clearance, disassembly and installation of piston groups, etc. accounted for 1/3 of the total maintenance amount. To complete the above operations, it requires manual use of friction wrench to crank the piston group weighing hundreds of kilograms. Due to the restriction of the opening space of the machine window, each crank can only rotate the piston group for 1/4 turn. After an overhaul, it will take several hours even if four or five employees continue to relay the turning gear. " Cao Kuan told reporters that after each overhaul, he could not help but "turn around in a hurry" when he saw the team members were exhausted.

The seemingly insignificant problems not only waste human resources, but also seriously restrict the maintenance efficiency and affect the normal operation of the device. "How to optimize the turning mode of the unit and find a time-saving, labor-saving and safe way?" Cao Kuan led the team members to make many attempts, but the results were unsatisfactory. Some employees were discouraged, but Cao Kuan refused to give up: "The equipment is here, so many of us can still be frightened by this difficulty?"

How to overcome this problem? In his spare time, Cao Kuan locked himself in the reference room. He looked up information on the Internet and studied equipment drawings repeatedly. One day, Cao Kuan, who was looking at the drawing, had a flash of inspiration - the piston group had a heavy head, a light tail, and a long body. The weight was concentrated on the piston at the front end. If the piston body could be directly rotated when turning, the turning efficiency would be greatly improved! Focus on the two threaded holes on the nut at the front end of the piston, and Cao Kuan's mouth corner draws a radian. There is a way!

Immediately, he asked for the technical backbone of the team and spoke about the idea of manufacturing special turning gear and improving the efficiency of turning gear. Everyone thought it was feasible. Just do what you say. Everyone quickly found waste iron pipes and bolts, welded them to make a special turning gear for the unit, and then installed the bolts into the threaded holes on the piston nuts, which solved the problem at one go. With this special turning gear, the operation time can be shortened by nearly 3 hours for each overhaul, and the labor cost can be saved by nearly 40000 yuan every year while reducing the construction risk.