Rebuilding a Cooling Tower Fan Section

MSC recently completed a full fan section rebuild on a cooling tower in Jersey City. The project involved replacing nearly every component of the fan assembly, including the motor mounting cross structure and tensioner, fan motor, motor and fan drive sheaves and belts, fan drive shaft and bearings, and the fan blades with their mounting hardware.

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  The new fan motor is lifted to the cooling tower with the Jersey City skyline in the background

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  Apprentices Chris Struble and Nick DePascale lubricate the damper assembly louvers

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  Project Manager Glenn Daniel and Journeyman Alec Radovanovic review fan dimensions, torque and pitch

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  The new pulley lands on the roof and the rigging strap is removed

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  Glenn and Alec verify bearing locations on the fan shaft, along with pulley placement

To gain access, our crew disconnected the tower's discharge damper assembly and rigged it off the tower. A lumber work platform was built inside the tower to protect the fill media while the old driveline was removed. A crane handled the heavy lifts, taking out the existing motor bracket and cross member and setting the new components in place.

With the new structure installed, the team mounted the motor, sheaves, belts, shaft, bearings and blades, checking bearing alignment, pulley location, blade clearance and pitch, and torquing the blade hardware to the manufacturer's specifications for that blade type.

The tower's sump and recirculation pump stayed online throughout the work, so the building kept partial cooling capacity while the fan was down. Once everything was reinstalled, the crew started up the fan and confirmed proper operation of the discharge damper.