PIRTEK Woodinville Assists a Marine Spill Response Company


Woodinville, WA — PIRTEK Woodinville has provided on-site hose repair service in the Seattle, WA area since 2011.  Over the summer Owner Chad Harkness received a call from a customer about required hydraulic maintenance for one of their tow barges.  The customer is the largest dedicated oil spill and emergency response organization in the United States.  Their tow barges are towed behind a recovery vessel that skims spilled oil from the water and stores it until transferred to the barge.



The tow barge needed maintenance on its two cranes with 50ft and 60ft booms. Both booms and the anchor winch had hoses that needed to be replaced. The winch also needed its hydraulic system cleaned.   The tow barge was docked three hours north west of Seattle in Port Angeles. Harkness immediately went to the port to review the scope of the work and provided the customer with a quote.  The customer instantly awarded the job to PIRTEK!



PIRTEK Woodinville's Operations Manager Kerry Kissinger immediately went to work to pull together all the necessary parts to complete job such as hose, fittings, oil, etc. in order to complete the job without returning to the Center.  PIRTEK USA's Customer Service department assisted locating special filters that were needed for the anchor winch hydraulic system on the barge. 



PIRTEK Woodinville Mobile Sales and Service Technician (MSST) Kyle Young was chosen specially for the job because he was the right size to fit inside the turrets of the cranes. Before he could remove any hoses from the boom or winch he had to drain and dispose all of the hydraulic oil from the system in the winch motor, clean the hydraulic tank and replace all of the filters and screens.  Young followed all of the customer's requirements by taping down oil absorbent matting to the deck areas around both booms and anchor winch to prevent any hydraulic oil spills. He also wore the proper personal protection equipment and fall protection when working more than 4ft off the ground.  In addition, he wore a floatation device when working near the edge of the barge.



After the old hydraulic hoses were drained and disposed of, Young measured, manufactured and cleaned fifty-four PFMU25 hydraulic hose assemblies with a 3600 psi working pressure in a wide variety of lengths.  All the hoses were tagged and Young refilled the hydraulic system with new hydraulic oil. Over thirty corroded adapters were replaced and sealed with densyl tape along as were the exposed hose ends. Finally, PIRTEK Woodinville performed a 1 hour test of the two cranes and the anchor winch to ensure safety and performance.



The job was completed in just five days, the on-site customer representative stated, "I am very happy with the service PIRTEK Woodinville provided and we look forward to working with them on another project during the fall season."



PIRTEK Woodinville is located at 16140 Woodville-Redmond Road, Ste 8 in Woodinville, WA. It serves as home base for its mobile fleet and is a convenient hose assembly source for walk-in customers. Like the mobile service vans, the Center is stocked with a wide variety of hoses, fittings and adapters for custom built hose assemblies. 



Mobile service is available around the clock by calling (425) 486-6653.  The Hose Service Center is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.



Rockledge, Florida-based PIRTEK USA is the world's leading service provider of ETA 1-Hour On-Site Hose Replacement. PIRTEK offers 24-hour, seven-day service that caters to almost every facet of industry. Over 40 PIRTEK franchise service centers that function as home base to more than 200 PIRTEK mobile service vans are operating in major metropolitan markets nationwide. For more information, visit www.pirtekusa.com.


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