SC&RA Rigging Job, less than $150,000: Vanguard

The two 127t frames were to be offloaded, rigged into a 3.5m deep pit in a busy working factory, lifted to vertical and assembled together. One frame would be bolted to the floor of the pit, and the other would be sliding.

Vanguard used a 400t Riggers Manufacturing EZ Lifter hydraulic gantry to offload the frames, pick them up and turn them through 90 degrees and shift them sideways without putting them down. With the first frame in position, the gantry carried it through a 65m long alleyway, and into the busy press hall. A second, 600t, EZ Lifter was waiting in the press hall to receive the load. The 7m long frame needed to be lowered into a 3.5m deep, 7.2m long pit, leaving only 200mm clearance. The frame would then be lifted to the vertical. If the frame had been tilted over a static point, the base end would have collided with the wall of the pit. Instead, wheels were fitted to the fulcrum edge, and the entire 127t frame moved backwards away from the pit wall, at the same time as it was lifted upright. With the first frame in place, the process had to be repeated for the second.

Managing director Bryan Hodgkinson said, “We are very proud at winning this award. When one considers that in order to achieve the award we had to be recognised on a truly international basis it is a major milestone in the development of our company, and for the industry in South Africa as a whole.”