Tank Access Platform

I left Hart Mechanical in 2018, and two years later they reached out and asked me to take on this project while I was working elsewhere. I was glad to help.

The platform gives operators access to the top of a process tank, its center port, and a nozzle, with upper and lower levels, a ladder, railings, self-closing gates, and a toe kick. The tank is 106-3/4 inches tall on a wheeled skid, under a 154-7/8 inch ceiling, which leaves less than four feet of clearance above it. Nearly every challenge came back to that number.

The tank also had to be tipped upright inside the room, and forklifts couldn’t get in. That left rigging from chains attached to the ceiling, which made the building part of the load path. Before anything could be lifted, I had to verify that the existing ceiling structure could carry the tank through the tip-up.

The design review came back with useful markups, and the most important one asked whether the upper and lower platforms bolted together, since it wasn’t clear the platform could get into the room in one piece. I knew the space was tight, but the drawing didn’t make it obvious how the design answered that. Another comment pointed out that a second support leg I had added worked against the customer’s request to move the tanks without removing the platform.

Both were cases of a known requirement not being visible in the drawing, and it taught me the value of a good design review. The access comments stuck with me the most: a raised rail behind the ladder, a less restrictive gate, and moving a hinge away from where someone would kneel. None of them changed the structure, but they all came from people picturing a person using the platform every day, and they made it safer and easier to use.