Ever need work on your car, and had the mechanic say, “Well, it’s only a $30 part, but it’ll be at least 4 hours of labor to get it in there because we have to remove everything but the seatbelts to get to where it needs to go…” ?
Plants with really long systems encounter the same problems. If they have Gorbel runways stretching as far as the eye can see, with bridge after bridge after bridge, what do they do when they need to service or remove a bridge in the center of the system?
Easy – they install Maintenance Gates. Maintenance Gates are basically a section of track that can be dropped out so that bridges on either side of the drop down section can be removed. Easy peasy.
1. Unbolt and remove the lock bar (a) that keeps the splice joints (b) from moving into a release position.
2. Unbolt the two splice joints (b) and slide them towards each other onto the drop down section (c)
3. Remove the drop down section (c). Bridges on either side of the opening created can then be removed through the opening.