The General Electric Gas
Turbine Test Stand 8 in Greenville, SC is the manufacturing home of the
world’s largest and most efficient gas turbine. It’s an enormous
structure capable of housing assembly lines capable of producing the
turbines. The construction needed an interior and exterior, UL certified
2-hour fire-rated wall expansion joint system for a long vertical run
joining two walls in a corner. The large walls were also constructed in
different planes incorporating a horizontal bump out to join the
different planes.
For the
EMSHIELD family of products, GE selected the
EMSHIELD WFR2 system because it provided a UL 2-hour
fire-rating, met the expansion joint movement requirements, and the
single-unit design offered an installation method which would be quick
and wouldn’t damage the existing wall system.
EMSEAL’s Wall Checklist was filled-out onsite and provided the necessary
field measurements to determine the best widths for the sticks of WFR2.
To accommodate the bump-outs, and maintain the
continuity of seal, a
group of
EMSEAL technical support, and manufacturing personnel
gathered to design a
custom,
3-D solution. They determined that a slight
alteration to the standard WFR2
Universal-90 transition would allow the
expansion joint to transverse from one plane to the next. The
flexibility of WFR2 allowed this design to be achieved with no damage to
the integrity of the system.
The success of this project showed that the unique field conditions
didn’t pose an obstacle; they allowed the flexibility of the
WFR2 system
design to come through and handle engineering modifications needed to
complete the wall. The ability to meet design challenges found in
many new and retrofit structures is one of the many features found in
all EMSEAL products.