Precise and timely crane runway exchange

Precise & timely crane runway hot-swap at Hydro Aluminium Rolled Products GmbH

The replacement of crane runway girders during a production standstill is always a very demanding and time-critical task. It is even more demanding when the time frame for the complete exchange due to production processes is a maximum of 10 hours.

How this work was carried out several times professionally, precisely and on time, was shown by the company Hoffmeier last year at Hydro Aluminum Rolled Products GmbH in Neuss.

The crane runway F built in 1961 of the kiln operation had to be completely replaced after more than 56 years for reasons of durability. The company Hoffmeier was assigned to manufacture, supply and replace the first axle of the 145m long crane runway. A particular difficulty here was in the production processes at Hydro Aluminium, which allowed a maximum of 10 hours from shutting down the crane runway to the re-commissioning. Exceeding the downtime would have led to high production losses. In a two-week preparatory phase, necessary adjustments were made to the existing construction and the pre-assembly of the crane runway girders with the support framework took place.

For the main assembly, production was interrupted twice a week at intervals of two days each, and a complete 15m long crane runway girder including accompanying truss, grating runway, column connections and rails were replaced.

Close supervision of the construction site by the project managers and the good cooperation between the supervisors, plant managers, the employees of the occupational safety department and the project managers led to a successful completion of the entire construction project.

Due to this good cooperation, the company Hoffmeier received the next contract to exchange another 435m crane runway under identical conditions during summer this year.