One of Belgium’s leading hauliers has fitted out its warehouse with Verlinde overhead cranes and other high capacity equipment designed for an ongoing and intensive steel coil logistics business
Greg Transports is one of the largest hauliers in Belgium in the steel business, specializing in steel coils for the car making industry in particular. 2015 marked the year the haulier acquired a warehouse offering it the opportunity of running its business more smoothly by storing steel coils delivered directly from various Arcelor Mittal Belgium factories by rail or road. It then transports them to end customers anywhere in Europe 7 days a week. The haulier, by virtue of this, offloads and loads 60 to 100 wagons together with 300 trailers on average every day.The haulier had initially chosen overhead cranes whose operational capacities did not meet the load requirements. The company very soon encountered numerous operational difficulties and failures that were not resolved quickly enough by the firm that had installed the equipment. The successive failures became impossible to handle and were incompatible with the developing business activity. Greg Transports therefore decided to call upon the services of Electrolevage to carry out these special operations more rapidly, generally under 24 hr. This independent Belgian manufacturer specializes in the study, manufacture, assembly and maintenance of industrial lifting machinery, gantry cranes, monorail trolleys and jib cranes made from VERLINDE components. It very soon became quite clear that it was indispensable to replace the existing lifting machinery by equipment aligned to needs, that was dependable and robust.
“At the start of our collaboration we assured our customer a systematically fast breakdown service both during the week and at the weekend which led, very soon afterwards, to our being consulted for the replacement of the existing cranes,” explains M. Dedrij, Managing Director of Electrolevage. We have worked for 15 years with Verlinde whose equipment is acknowledged as being reliable and of quality. We first proposed a 35-tonne crane based on Verlinde components in 2017. This was met by the satisfaction of users for its rapidity and reliability. Then orders for 5 other overhead cranes (2 with spans of 40.5 meters) were placed in order to keep abreast of the increase in volumes of coils handled by GregTransports that vary from 250,000 to 300,000 tonnes per month. Storage capacity at the facility is 130,000 tonnes of steel and 25,000 pallets. ”
” The overhead cranes in place at Greg Transports before our arrival were then transferred to a less intensive activity. The equipment was of good quality but not designed for the intensive handling of steel coils “, adds Mr Van de Wiele, Verlinde’s technical sales agency manager for Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. We proposed equipment able to cope with the high handling throughput rate of coils. The Jib crane and end-carriage parts are designed for an M6 working cycle, which means intensive operations at full load and at top speed ”
High capacity overhead cranes
The Greg Transports warehouse facilities are currently equipped in all with 4 x 35-tonne cranes with a span of 22 meters and 2 x 35-tonne cranes with a span of 40 meters, perfectly aligned with the intensive operations required. They all provide high speeds of 63m/min for crossing, 40m/min for travelling and 16m/min for hoisting. They are fitted with variable speed for all movements, radio remote control and LED lighting systems. A swing correction system is also installed as loads are heavy but require significant precautionary measures during manipulation. An impact on a coil could lead to serious consequences.
These Verlinde cranes have capacities four times greater than those they replace and Electrolevage provides 4 years full warranty. A technician has been specially trained and is dedicated to the maintenance and servicing of these cranes. This order was very significant for Electrolevage. The maker was already experienced in this field, i.e. the handling of steel coils but never before to that extent. ” The assembly and commissioning of the 22-meter cranes took a little more than a week and almost three weeks for the 40-metre cranes. The abnormal load transportation at night of girders required 2 semi-articulated trucks of a total length of 53 m and 12 persons for signalling duties” adds Vincent Dedrij.
Since the first crane was set up three years ago, Greg Transports has continued to place orders, the latest being a crane that will be delivered in early 2020. He unreservedly declares his full satisfaction as to their, quality, robustness and dependability.
