ENGINEER TO ENGINEER
Mechan lifting jacks for KiwiRail
Two rail depots in New Zealand are to bene t
from equipment supplied by She eld-based
Mechan.
The manufacturer is supplying eight
30-tonne lifting jacks to KiwiRail, eight years
after it installed four identical units at the
operator’s Hamilton depot.
The new lifting jacks are to be used in the
Wellington and Dunedin rail depots on New
Zealand’s north and south
islands respectively, to cater
for a eet extension and
maintain several di erent
types of locomotives.
Mechan has worked
with KiwiRail to customise
Mechan’s standard design.
Having completed the build
phase in February, the units
are now being shipped.
Lindsey Mills, Mechan’s
sales manager, says:
“Despite our existing links
with KiwiRail, these orders
were won through tender
and our products judged impartially on their
quality and value for money. We have proven
the high level of reliability our jacks achieve and
we expect that this was viewed positively in the
decision-making process.
“We look forward to returning to New
Zealand to complete the installation and by
doing so, further extending our reputation for
excellence across the country.”
RSS supports railway bridge lift
Finsbury picks
CMMS
Spidex Software has revealed that
Finsbury Food Group has selected
Mainsaver CMMS (computerised
maintenance management
system) software for its seven
manufacturing sites across the UK.
The selection of Mainsaver
CMMS is said to be one part
of a company-wide effi ciency
improvement drive at Finsbury
called the ‘Operating Brilliance’
programme. In terms of the
engineering maintenance element,
the programme seeks to uniformly
improve asset management across
all sites with standardised KPIs and
reporting systems.
Engineering manager Peter
Saint comments: “We have grown
signifi cantly over the last decade
through acquisition of strategic
businesses, and it’s fair to say that
each factory in the group is at a
different stage in its journey to
engineering excellence. There were
a number of legacy CMMS systems
in place at our various sites and we
identifi ed a need to standardise
across the business.”
To that end, a series of
product demonstrations from the
incumbent CMMS providers were
arranged. Saint says: “We assessed
that Mainsaver was the system that
closest matched our requirements.
It was already installed and working
at one of our factories.”
A project study was then carried
out by Spidex at each plant to
determine the current position in
respect of asset management and
how this links with the Operating
Brilliance programme. A schedule
of activity was then agreed.
Rope and Sling Specialists (RSS) has revealed
that it recently provided rigging gear to
Quattro Plant as an adapted rail crane lifted
a 20t railway bridge that was knocked o its
foundations by a heavy goods vehicle in South
Wales.
Quattro utilised its 55t capacity Demag
AC55 Rail (City) Crane to complete the urgent
removal of the approx. 24m-long footbridge
which had fallen awkwardly, with one section
trapped between a tree and an abutment wall.
Quattro contracted RSS to supply rigging
gear to work beneath the hook of the threeaxle,
telescopic boom, all-terrain crane. It
delivered three spreader beams that were
used in a one-over-two con guration; a
MOD50 was used at 10m in length at the top,
while two MOD24 beams were used at 3m
in length underneath. According to RSS, the
MOD50 can be used up to 50t at 8m and up
to 13m at a lower capacity, while the MOD24
can be used up to 24t at 5m and up to 8m at a
lower capacity. All were supplied with top and
bottom shackles.
RSS also supplied a pair of 30t capacity
roundslings with an e ective working length
of 10m that were rigged from the crane’s
hook down to the top beam. Four 10t capacity
roundslings with an e ective working length
of 4m connected that beam to its lower
counterparts. Completing the rig were four
12t capacity, 6m-long collar chains and
shorteners, and four 25t capacity alloy bow
shackles.
80 www.operationsengineer.org.uk Autumn 2020
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