Bechtel
Canvas Category OEM : Construction
Bechtel helps our customers deliver projects of purpose that create a lasting positive legacy. These are projects that create jobs and grow economies; improve the resiliency of the world’s infrastructure; connect communities to resources and opportunity; get us closer to net zero; protect U.S. and allied interests; tackle critical environmental challenges to protect people and the planet; and accelerate progress to make the world a cleaner, greener, safer place.
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Bechtel Plant Machinery Inc. Selects Velo3D's Metal Additive Manufacturing Solution To Revolutionize the Supply Chain for the U.S. Navy
Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE: VLD), announced Bechtel Plant Machinery Inc. (BPMI) has selected a fully integrated metal additive manufacturing solution from the company to produce parts for the U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. The Sapphire XC large format printer, calibrated for stainless steel 415, will be operated by ATI (NYSE: ATI) at its new additive manufacturing facility outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Earlier this year, BPMI awarded a contract to ATI to support development of highly engineered part solutions for advanced manufacturing methods including metal additive manufacturing. The partners will use the printer to produce parts previously produced through casting, reducing lead times for mission critical parts, and streamlining their supply chain.
Bechtel and Five Point Energy Announce Sustained Pilot Operations of Innovative Water Conservation Technology
Bechtel, a global leader in engineering, procurement, construction, and project management, announced the sustained pilot operations of its proprietary Low Energy Ejector Desalination System (LEEDS) – a long-awaited economic solution that creates a valuable new supply of water for customers and communities, which in turn reduces stress on limited freshwater resources.
LEEDS is an efficient, cost-effective, end-to-end solution that converts produced water from oil and gas fields into usable, end-marketable products. The recovered water can be used for agriculture or grassland irrigation, feedstocks for industrial uses such as hydrogen production, fertilizers for agricultural uses, and clean water for industrial and community applications. By transforming a costly byproduct into a useful resource, LEEDS allows customers to handle produced water responsibly while also alleviating water scarcity.
Robots Automate Disassembly of Chemical Weapons
Disarming and disassembling the rockets is not easy, and the task is made even more difficult because of the rocket’s design. The rocket propellant cannot be removed from the warhead without cutting open the rocket, and the propellant itself presents a hazard, because it becomes unstable as it ages. Another danger is leakage of the toxic nerve agents. As sarin decomposes, it forms acids that can corrode the aluminum casing inside the rocket.
Both Ankrom and Staggs have seen first-hand how advancements in chemical weapons destruction now require fewer and fewer people. Ankrom started working with chemical agents in the mid-1980s, recalling how his first project, which focused on a hallucinogenic, was entirely manual and required 15 people. Even as recently as 2014, workers at the Blue Grass depot had to manually separate the warheads from the rocket motors and then separate the fuses from the warheads to support testing at the Anniston Static Detonation Chamber disposal plant, adds Staggs, who has worked with chemical weapons since 1978. “Adding the automation with robots has assisted us with reducing people interaction with these aging chemical weapons,” Staggs says. But the Blue Grass depot’s original disposal system plans, even with its robots, presented problems when workers discovered leaking rockets.
The agency reached out to CRG Automation, an engineering firm best known for building packaging lines for the likes of Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s and Kraft. CRG Automation has been designing and building packaging and processing equipment for the food, beverage and consumer products industries for more than 20 years. CRG Automation developed an alternative method by holding the assembly fixed and making the cut with the rocket in a vertical orientation, ensuring that any leaking chemical agent would simply gather in the bottom of a containment device. Cutting the rockets in an upright orientation also meant that the operation could be done more precisely. The cut can be located with an accuracy of 0.001 inch, Ankrom says. Six-axis robots are used to load and unload the cutting machines.