OCR Text |
Show Canal Has Big Repairing Plant a- Facilities at Balboa and Cristobal for Ship Work Are Described. Washington The elaborate facilities facil-ities for the repairing of ships at the 1'anama canal are given in a bulletin of the Tanamacanal authorities. The principal manufacturing and repair plant is located at Balboa, the Pacific terminal of the canal. It is adjacent to an inner harbor, which has an area sufficient to permit access to docks, which aggregate 7,300 feet in length, including commercial docks, repair wharves and coaliug docks. A much smaller plant is located at Cristobal, the Atlantic terminal about one and one-half miles from the main commercial docks. A description of the plant at Balboa follows: The dock has a depth of 35 feet over the blocks at mean tide. High tide Taries from 31 to 11 feet above mean tide. It is s.erved by a 50-ton traveling travel-ing crane ifth an outside reach of five feci beyond the, center of the dock. This Crane is also capable of traveling along the face of some of the repair wharves, thus facilitating the work of repairing vessels. For ships which do not require dry docking there are adjacent to the shops about 3.r0 feet of repair wharves. At regtfiar intervals along the coping of the dry dock and the repair wharves ae outlets for air. water and alternating electric current. A limited quantity of direct current can be supplied by two portable motor generating sets. Either compressed air or electricity can be supplied for operating auxiliaries on ships on which steam is Where refrigerating refrigerat-ing machinery is shut down, cold storage can be removed from the ship's boxes and stored in the canal cold storage chouse nearby. The rT-air. s.iops are centrally located lo-cated with re?pect to the dry dock f.nd repair wharves. Ample track and crane services provide for handling work between . shops and ships. Huge Traveling Cranes. The main metal-working shops (machine, (ma-chine, smithery, and boiler shop) are provided with CO-ton overhead travel-cling travel-cling cranes, while the foundry has a "5-ton overhead crane. As all the shops are equipped with as complete lines of power tools as are generally found in an up-to-date repair shop, only the larger tools will be given special mention so to give an idea 4 the maximum capacity of each department. de-partment. The machine shop is provided with s vertical boring mill capable of working work-ing IS feet in diameter, with an open side extension planer 16 feet by 3'2 f 'et, and with a lathe 120-inch swing by fio feet between centers. No ship nachinery Is too large for the cnpae-fiy cnpae-fiy of this shop. This shop has a door ea of approximately 6S.1S0 square feet. The smithery is provided with a .'"O-ton forging press with the : ces-f.'ry ces-f.'ry furnaces to handle any work fat the press Is capable of. Billets inches square by r.l feet long are I pt in stock and can bp worked un-c un-c r riiis press; there are other ma-i ma-i ainery and tools usually found in a f st-class smithery. There Is also a (' partmcnt for spring making and a f. ol-drossing department that Includes I'll burning and electric tempering f marcs of the latest type. This shop lias a floor area of approximately approximate-ly IM.f'.sr, square feet. The boiler and ship-titting shops have a set of rolls capable of I. -nding plates -, Inch by :'i feet. 1 hi.-h by 24 feet, or 2 inches by U feet. Any size of ship or boiler plates or structural shapes can be worked by the other machinery, w-hicu Includes angle shears, punches, straightening rolls, plate planar, and bending machine. ma-chine. This shop has a floor area of approximately 4G.S00 square feet. The pipe shop is outfitted for plumbing plumb-ing work and for pipe, copper and sheet-metal work of the highest classes. The floor area of this shop is approximately 17,144 square feet. The foundry is equipped with a two-ton two-ton tropenas converter and one two-ton two-ton and one one-ton cupola, and the usual brass furnaces. There is an efficient sand-blast system for cleaning clean-ing castings, also gate saws, sprue cutters, and other modern equipment. Including annealing furnaces, core oven and mold-drying oven. The foundry can turn out castings as follows: fol-lows: Bronr.e, brass or composition, U pound to 1.000 pounds; iron i pound to 26.000 pounds; steel. U pound to 10.000 pounds. In connection connec-tion with the foundry is a pattern shop equipped to handle any and all classes of pattern work. This foundry and pattern shop together have a floor area of approximately o7,75S square feet. Woodworking Machinery. The planing mill and joiner shop Is outfitted with the usual woodworking machines, including a 72-ineb sawmill capable of handling timbers likely to he used In connection with ship work. This shop has a floor area of approximately approxi-mately 40.044 square feet. The oxy-aeetylene plant has portable port-able electric welding and oxy-acety-lene cutting outfits capable of handling han-dling emergency repairs. The plant develops approximately 400 cubic feet of acetylene per hour, fi.OOO cubic feet of hydrogen per day. All classes of boiler welding are done. Large thermite welds can be performed. Main engine cylinders have been welded in place, both high pressure and low pressure, the welds being as extensive and as successful as the welds made in the United States on engine cylinders during t lie World war. This plant has a floor area of approximately 010 square feet. An instrument repair shop is maintained main-tained in which repairs are made to navigating instruments, clocks, gauges, typewriters and computing machines and other work of a minute character. In connection with this shop there is a plating plant for zinc, copper, nickel, silver and gold. This shop has a floor area of approximately 2.5(K square feet. Located in the same building with the instrument repair shop is an electric elec-tric shop under the control of the electrical division, the facilities of which are available for the entire Panama canal. This shop Is equipped for motor winding, switchboard work and making repairs to practically any kind of electrical apparatus. The floor area of this shop Is approximately approximate-ly 3.400 square feet. There is a car shop equipped with all necessary machinery for the building build-ing of railroad cars of all kinds and also the repairing of all the rolling stock of the Panama railroad. In connection with this shop there Is a rerolling mill for rerolling bars and miscellaneous scrap material into rounds and flats. This shop has a floor area of approximately 01. sr.) square feet. There is located at both the Balboa and the Cristobal shops and connected connect-ed therewith a roundhouse where general gen-eral overhauling as well as minor repairs re-pairs are made to the locomotives of the Panama railroad. The air-compressor plant and dry- dock pumping plant at Balboa are located in the same building. There are two 5.000 cubic foot and one 2,500 cubic foot air compressors in use, driven by electric motors and one 2.500 cubic foot steam-driven compressor com-pressor which is considered only as un emergency unit. Up-to-Date Laboratory. There is a laboratory equipped with a 100,000-pound Riehle testing machine ma-chine and a Brinnell hardness testing machine and other equipment for making physical tests of all kinds. There are also available In another division of the Panama canal, laboratories labora-tories where chemical tests can be made of fuel oils, metals, etc. All shop tools are operated by electricity. elec-tricity. The larger tools are provided with independent motors and the smaller tools are arranged In groups and driven from countershafts. The current is obtained from a hydroelectric hydro-electric plant at the Gatun spillway, supplemented by a Diesel-driven plant at Mirallores. The 25-cycle, alternating alternat-ing current is transmitted to the Balboa Bal-boa substation at 44.000 volts. At the substation it is transformed to 2.200 volts and so distributed Through underground un-derground duct lines to t lie various shops, where it is further transformed, where necessary, to suitable voltages for use. The various speed tools in the machine ship are driven by direct current from rotary transformers within the shop. All other tools are driven by alternating current, generally gener-ally at 220 volts. Current at 220 volts Is available at nil points along the water front for power purposes, and at 110 volts for lighting in the event of ships generators being out of use. The storehouses (under the control of the supply department) carry on hand a large stock of steel shapes, pipe, ship liftings, and supplies of every description. Steel plate is carried car-ried in stock in all thicknesses up to and Including 2 inches, nates smaller than ?J-inch vary by sixteenths and plates larger than 'j-lnch vary by eighths. The largest plates in stock are 72 inches by 10 feet by 2 Inches thick. A large amount of steel billets is kept on band in all sizes tip to and including 24 inches by 24 inches by 10 feet. Structural shapes are carried car-ried as follows: I-beams, all sizes up to 27 inches: channels, all sizes ' up to 15 inches; ship channels, all sizes up to 12 inches: and ancles, all sizes up to S inches by S inches by "i-ineh. There are also carried in the storehouses lumber of all sizes and miscellaneous equipment and supplies of practically every description that are used in the operation and maintenance main-tenance of the entire 1'anama canal. |