For ThyssenKrupp Convoi transferred a production line weighing 500 tonnes from Homburg in Germany to Nanjing in China. A job that was completed in eight weeks.
Author: Wilbert Franken
For ThyssenKrupp Gerlach Convoi started the disassembly of a hot Forming Press line code name PL11 in Homburg (Saarland), Germany in September 2015.
The PL11 produces camshafts for use in the automotive industry. This line had to make way for a new press line from manufacturer Sumitomo which Convoi was allowed to assemble.
The whole job was as follows:
Disassembly of the complete line, transfer to a temporary storage facility 60 kilometres from Homburg, packing, transfer to Nanjing (China), one-on-one assembly in Nanjing, replacement of the old wiring by new wiring and support during the commissioning.
The total weight of the line is +/- 500 tonnes. Of this, the so-called Press body has a weight of 180 tonnes. Furthermore there are 14 40ft. sea shipping containers and 15 breakbulk parts. The new wiring had a length of 6500 metres.
The required equipment consisted of:
The assembly took place in Nanjing at TKECC (ThyssenKrupp Engine Components), about 300 kilometres from Shanghai. Nanjing is a city with 9 million inhabitants. This project was a huge challenge in which all facets of our business came together. It was a huge challenge to execute a project in China, but that was also what made it very interesting. The assembly activities were completed mid-November, 2016. The commissioning phase will be in January, 2017.
My thanks go out to all operational staff members of this project. The China team has done an excellent job! Together with a local partner they finished the assembly job in eight weeks, in spite of the big cultural differences.