Over time, installations are moved in and out of a factory. After 20 years of operation, this resulted in an impressive collection of steel on the roof of a customer: outdated lifting structures. Maintaining and renovating large steel structures at height can have a significant impact on the availability of the production location(s) underneath. It was our job to prevent just that!
Costs caused by assets: under control
Unnecessary costs can be avoided by obtaining inspection, analysis and advice from an agency such as Intures. With both field experience and engineering capabilities available, to support asset management and decisions therein.
In the case of this job, we recommended immediately renovating part of the steel construction, because under that weight the (outdated) condenser platforms would deteriorate more quickly. Control over these hidden costs could only be taken from that position; a complete overview was required!
Flying steel ‘pop-up canopy tent‘ of 21 tons
Involving our engineers in the preparatory phase is certainly not an unnecessary luxury for such a maintenance project. Part of the accumulated steel cat beam system on the roof was no longer in good condition and was not to be used anylonger and was therefore removed immediately. For example, a steel part that was shaped as a pop-up canopy tent but weighed about 21 tons. You can imagine that this frame cannot be lifted from an arbitrary point: quite a few forces are working the beams.
In addition, how are you going to attach anything to the frame at this height to hoist it from the roof to the ground, without having good access? Intures employs certified engineers for this purpose. It will certainly save you some headaches knowing that work at height will be carried out safely and efficiently. The only thing that can put pressure on the planning is the weather. And the weather was good for this job. But there was another critical factor at play…
Project manager on holiday without a care
The thorough preparation of this project proved ciritical. For the job, there would be a choice between having to shut down the production of 1 or 2 factories for the maintenance work. Of course, everything was done to ensure that only 1 factory had to be shut down, and for as short a time as possible. A solid plan was needed for the placements and choices in use of the cranes given the weights, the distances to be bridged and the available space on the ground floor to accommodate removed parts. Lastly, these parts had to be transported to recycling site quickly.
Our construction manager and his team were rewarded for their efforts by experiencing that the customer’s project manager did not call him during his Holiday and returned after it with a heartfelt “Well organised.” The great trust shown by the customer: our goal was achieved!
Inturested in maintenance at heights, support from our engineers when working with large forces, or would you like to have them join us at an early stage to save costs? Please contact us now without obligation!
