Marine News: AME Supports Bradford Marine with Critical Shiplift Repair
When most people think of AME, they picture our team working on yachts, workboats, and commercial vessels. But our capabilities extend far beyond what happens onboard. A recent project at Bradford Marine is a perfect example of how AME supports the maritime industry’s essential infrastructure not just the vessels it serves. In this case, we applied our industrial machinery expertise to a shipyard sinker lift, proving that our precision extends to the heavy equipment that keeps the yard moving.
Bradford Marine hired AME for routine maintenance on Lift 2A, which led to the discovery of excessive wear on the drive pinion gear. AME removed and replaced the worn components to prevent further damage, ensuring safe operation, and restore the lift to optimal conditions.
Our field service team removed the intermediate shaft and drive pinion gear before dismantling, cleaning, and evaluating the intermediate gear. Significant wear confirmed the need for a replacement of both drive pinion and intermediate gears. Both gears were sent for precision measurements to be taken and new gears fabricated. While away, we cleaned, inspected, and dialed the intermediate shaft. Total indicated runouts measured 0.001 inches on the drive end and 0.000 inches on the non-drive end.
AME also replaced the pedestal bearings with new. Upon return of the newly fabricated gears, our team installed and aligned them under the supervision of Pearlson Shiplift Corporation, ensuring accuracy and reliability. After testing the lift under no-load conditions, the previous gear noise was fully eliminated.
Your guys did a fantastic job and verified the fit and alignment of the new gears… Again thanks for your help on a job well done.
-Tom Krigger, VP & General Manager, Bradford Marine
With new gears, fresh pedestal bearings, and precision alignment, Lift 2A is in service and operating smoothly. We recommended verifying bolt and set-screw torques after two weeks of operation as well as continuing routine inspection cycles to maintain long-term performance. This project exemplifies AME’s commitment to delivering the precision engineering and deep expertise necessary to keep the entire maritime infrastructure running safely and reliably.
