PREFATEC France recently called on Verlinde to install equipment in its new extension which integrated a production facility.
Prefatec offers bespoke technical solutions for prefabricated electrical installations designed for new buildings or those being renovated.
Its main constraint for the fitting out of its new building involved dense operator traffic, which meant the ground surface area had to be completely free of obstructions.
In the production facility area, as load handling was mainly manual, the lifting system had to be ergonomic and travel had to be mechanically free. Verlinde also had to take account of the lightness of the structure of the existing framework to which the weight of the handling equipment had to be adapted.
With this in mind, Verlinde proposed an electrical handling structure in aluminium to be suspended from the building’s structural framework, a lightweight and economical option that left the ground surface area free from obstacles.
Verlinde first had meetings with architects to validate the mass to be borne. As the loads to be handled were light, the installation was made up of four lifting cranes installed side by side, each with a lifting capacity of 125 kg and a span of four metres for a travel length of 20 metres.
The hanging structure takes 2.29 kN. A total of 176 metres of Eurosystem aluminium rails were installed. According to Verlinde, this range of hollow sections free of gaps benefits from an excellent minimum loss of headroom.
It is available as monorails, runways, singlebeam or double-beam overhead cranes, simple or complex circuit systems with change of direction by switching or by a multidirectional turntable, offering great flexibility due to its design.
“The Eurosystem overhead handling system offers the ideal solution for moving light loads and fits in very well with site layout imperatives or production processes and numerous configurations are available,” the company said in a statement.
“In the case of Prefatec, the suspended design of the system minimising stress on the bearing structure meets the weight constraint. What is more, the excellent rolling coefficient facilitates the smooth travel of loads.”
It added that construction constraints were complied with, the equipment was installed once the concrete floor had dried and according to a precise erection schedule which was faithfully observed. Likewise, commissioning was also subject to strict compliance with an agreed timetable.
