trailer world issue One 2008

photographic record of the way loads are se- cured, we have had no more problems with frayed straps or loose attachments,” says shipping boss Kosubek. The chartered mechanical engineer has worked for Salzgitter for 44 years, and to- day he is the ‘eminence grise’ of operation- al logistics management in the steel group. When he drives his silver E-Class Mercedes across the works site under the gaze of as- tonished visitors, doors and gates open up as if by magic. Codes that are used to describe the production shops on the large works site are part of everyday language. The coils for the VH 400 come by rail on a shuttle from U1, as the production shop is known. They cannot be collected straight away: the coils of hot-rolled steel take three days to cool down from 700 degrees to a temperature at which nobody is going to burn their ﬁngers. Up to 60,000 steel coils rest in the centre bay of the shipping warehouse, surrounded by railway tracks and temperature-control- led by means of infrared radiators. Glistening white or shimmering blue jewels of indus- trial production, which can easily be worth over 30,000 Euros each. Anyone who moves them has to pick them up with velvet gloves so that there are no scratches, which the cus- tomer would complain about straight away. Steel coils, which are dispatched throughout Europe, are packed in orange ﬁlm to pro- tect the sensitive material from wind and weather. Because air humidity is toxic. Only in the warm, protected warehouse are the coils carefully loaded onto the trailers. High demands on the reliability of lorries and trains Title Issue One 2008 11

trailer world issue One 2008

Pages