trailer world Issue One 2012

Issue One 2012 25 Photos:LarsKrüger The orders handled by Hans-Georg Milschus are above all large. Large, heavy and al- ways different. “No one job is like any other in our company”, says the head of technology at “Securitas – Gesellschaft für Seeverpackung”. The subsidiary of the Hamburg Buss group packages items of plant and machinery for sea transport. Sometimes it is equipment for a chipboardplant,acorepressofametalworking group,orevenacompleterailwayorawholecar factory destined for Chile, Thailand or China. And even now the 5,000 m2 hall is crammed with bulky goods, some shrinkwrapped or already stowed away in crates. “Orders from automotive manufacturers in particular are booming”, says Frank Freyer, responsible for sales at Buss Ports. Many companies are cur- rently building their own plants in emerging countries such as China or Brazil. The steel and wood-processing industry is also ship- ping more equipment and machinery to other continents. Accurate work to the last centimetre. At the moment a low-loader carrying an industrial furnace, covered with tarpaulin, is carefully entering the hall. The furnace is dismantled into four large parts. “Each of the four parts weighs around 20 tonnes and has a length of 10 metres”, says Milschus, as he checks the load. The four parts of the furnace are manoeuvred accurately onto prefabricated wooden bases by indoor crane, and the bolt- ing points marked. Later, workers drill holes at these points to fix the feet of furnace with bolts. Meanwhile Milschus continually checks the alignment with a yardstick. His work however begins long before this stage. In order to do the quote, he and Freyer visit the customer. They assess and measure the load on site to estimate the material and effort required for the packaging. Whether by break-bulk or container, in crates or squared timber packing, and of course special solu- tions – for transport by land, sea or air. “The packaging depends not only on the size and weight of the contents”, explains Milschus. Special sensitivity, customer specifications, the transport route and the regulations of the importing country also play an important role. One thing always remains the same how- ever: the customer gets individually tailored packaging for his freight. Specific solutions. For the industrial fur- nace for example, four special crates with transport bases were constructed by the Grabow box factory in Mecklenburg, which also belongs to the company. “Since other car- go will be placed on the crate later on the ship, the cover must be able to withstand a stack crushing pressure of one tonneper square me- tre”, explains Milschus. The cross-sections of the construction timbers in the upper panel- ling were therefore increased. The wood is also heat-treated to kill off woodworm and para- sites in the crate – as required by the wood im- port regulations in China, the destination of the industrial furnace. Special steel constructions are produced if necessary for other goods, such as the eight locomotives, each weighing 130 tonnes and bound for Chile. For the self-supporting crates, 2.50 metre wide steel beams were pro- duced and anchored to the bottom of the crate, in order to be able to lift them by crane. For eight 230 tonne rollers for a steel mill in Russia however, a metal framework was con- structed, which was even certified by Germa- nischer Lloyd. The most difficult requirement: It could not weigh more than seven tonne and the rollers could only be in contact at four points. “The packaging must always be as light as possible and accurately dimensioned”, says Milschus because it further increases the vol- ume and weight of the freight, and thus The industrial furnace is packed in custom- made wooden crates with transport base. »No one job is like any other in our company.« Hans-Georg Milschus, Technical Manager at Securitas

trailer world Issue One 2012

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