Industrial rope-access company Skyriders Access Specialists continues to offer various maintenance and repair solutions to aid key sectors – such as the furnaces industry – locally and abroad while expanding its service offering.

Skyriders marketing manager Mike Zinn says the Institute for Work at Height-governed method can be applied successfully on furnace maintenance and repair work, as there are normally fewer people on-site during a shutdown.

This enhances health and safety, and also affords Skyriders and its clients a higher level of flexibility should there be a change in the original plan, he adds.

Zinn cites an example of the team not having been able to gain access using its ordinary method during inspections, owing to an access route that was blocked because of build-up.

“We were able to remove a certain section of this furnace and then abseil down into the area where we needed to continue our inspections. It was a case of rerigging our ropes and setting them up elsewhere to carry on with the work.”

Moreover, Skyriders will look to improve its recently added drone inspection method to continue offering more services that complement its rope-access solution.

Skyriders intends to continue doing more work in its key markets, which comprise the power generation, petrochemicals, mining and construction, as well as paper and pulp sectors.

“We are very optimistic about doing more inspection-related work for clients, which takes place prior to repairs. We have also done welding repairs on a range of ducting and structures. So, we are very confident in that regard,” he says.

Further, Zinn advances that the company has assisted a cement manufacturing plant in making the most of its recent shutdown period.

A five-person rope-access team was deployed for the four-day project, which was completed successfully. The company’s scope of work comprised routine inspection of induced draft ducting associated with a cooling tower at the supplier’s kiln operation in the North West.