Demag, a leading manufacturer of high-performance industrial cranes, has recently offered a range of steel handling solutions comprising its universal cranes as well as pillar jib cranes for Promat BD Middle East’s facilities in Dubai, UAE.

Promat BD Middle East was in search of a comprehensive solution for its operations in Jebel Ali, which specialises in the manufacture of forged flanges and special fittings for the onshore and offshore oil and gas industries, as well as for the energy industry. 

These components, which feature nominal sizes of up to 48 inches, must meet extremely strict requirements concerning material quality, leak tightness, corrosion protection, and service life. Producing such large and heavy pipeline components involves a large number of process steps and just as many transport steps and several Demag pillar-mounted slewing cranes were acquired for this job at the Dubai location back in 2014, says Demag.

With production operations set to be expanded with one additional production line, Promat BD Middle East sought a handling solution that would be able to take care of a series of tasks.

“For example, at the beginning of the process chain, where steel plates with thicknesses of 5 to 200 mm must be fed to a waterjet cutting/plasma cutting machine, after which the cut elements are stored temporarily. As soon as there is a machining job, the cut plate elements – which can be quite heavy – are transported to various areas in the new manufacturing shop, such as for welding, machining, and painting,” explains a spokesman for Demag.

An overhead travelling crane with a 10-ton capacity spans the 20-m width of the bay.

Solution

The company’s good experience with its existing (slewing) cranes and the advice provided by Demag experts on site led Promat BD to work with Demag once again for this project, he points out.

The spokesman continues: “The solution designed and installed on-site by the Demag engineers features an overhead travelling crane with a load capacity of 10 tonnes from Demag’s standard modular range of products. The corresponding girder completely spans the 20-m width of the bay.

“On the ground, each of the five working areas is equipped with a slewing crane that has been custom-configured for the corresponding task. The corresponding load capacities (one to two tonnes) are different from each other, as are the jib lengths and slewing ranges (0 to 360 degrees). A two-tonne slewing crane is installed at the end of the process chain, in the packing area.

“Demag slewing jib cranes provide support for daily work at the workplaces.”

The slewing cranes make ergonomic work and flexible and gentle handling possible, he adds. They make it easy to work on all sides of the pipeline components, which can weigh up to two tonnes. The cranes are controlled with a cable-connected DSC-7 controller, which enables operators to control all movements of the jib trolley and hoist movements with outstanding precision. The pendant controller fits well in the user’s hand and allows both left- and right-handed operators to control the hoist safely, reliably, and intuitively, both with and without gloves.

Special features

The crane set-up designed for Promat BD shows that Demag’s standard range of products can be used to configure custom transport and handling solutions. The overhead travelling crane was configured from the modular system from the EKKE range. And even though all five slewing cranes are different from each other, they are standard products that are used constantly day after day, the spokesman states.