New Blog on Heavy Lift (Alternate Lifting)

I have finally started my new blog heavyliftindia.blogspot.com
This blog will explore the rarely discussed world of Alternate Lifting, focusing on India. Feedback is welcome.

Launch of Australian Oceanographic research ship "Investigator" weighing 4500t with Skidding technique in Singapore

Announcement: New Blog on Heavy Lift on Diwali 2013

Since heavy transport is incomplete without heavy lift, i am in process of creating a new blog on heavy lift. I will concentrate more on non-crane onshore special projects in this blog. Hoping to get it running by Diwali this year. Wish me luck :).

Registration of Hydraulic Trailers: A misguided government mechanism

Things have been getting from frustrating to ridiculous. The previous process of registration of hydraulic trailers was in itself a pain. Now it has become absurd too.

Rule No.126 of CMVR clearly states that all motor vehicles OTHER THAN trailers and semi trailers shall submit prototype for test by...

The why on earth is the office of Ministry of Road Transport asking for type approval? I don't have the letter but from what i hear is that the top official has released a letter which asks for prototype testing of hydraulic trailers.

The funny part is, his predecessor had issue a letter which said that design approval from any Govt. engineering college would be enough (i have a copy).

Don't these officials know that they can be legally challenged for issuing the letter for prototype testing.  Will the ministry now function with personal whims and wishes of these IAS babus now?

I have a feeling that with the next change in the office, this procedure will again change.

Shape Shifting Semi Trailer- SuperFlex from Scheuerle & Nicolas

A marvel from the house of TII Group.

Movement of ODCs/OWCs on various National Highways without permission of this Ministry, Circular dated 27th June, 2013

You can download the recent circular from Ministry of Road Transport & Highways from their website or
http://morth.nic.in/showfile.asp?lid=1028

1000th KAMAG K24 axle line delivered to the Sarens Group

The Sarens Group, based in Wolvertem, Belgium, has a workforce of around 4,000 employees and is recognized as one of the giants of the special transportation industry. "Better safe than sorry" is one of the maxims of this globally operating company. In order to meet this requirement as well as ensuring that the quality promises it gives to its customers can be kept, the enterprise needs safe and reliable equipment. Sarens therefore relies on the K24 modular transporter from KAMAG. With the delivery of the thousandth axle line on 27th June 2013, the focus was not on looking back but instead on the future.

"The world is our market and it is precisely here - namely, across the globe - that we want to continue to steadily grow. We are on the way up. Nothing is too heavy or too high for us", said Ludo Sarens, President of the Board. "Having reliable vehicles at our disposal is the most important thing as we have to rely 100 % on our equipment. Those who want to be at the forefront of our business cannot afford to have any breakdowns or malfunctions; therefore, we continue to strengthen our fleet with KAMAG modular transporters", added Sarens. In particular, integrating KAMAG Transporttechnik in the TII Group, the recognized world leader in heavy-duty vehicles, provides the required framework for ensuring reliable delivery and a long-term partnership between Sarens and KAMAG.

In recent years, Sarens has been continuously investing heavily in the expansion of its modular transporter fleet. Sarens placed an initial order for a total of 4 platform elevating transporters complete with hydrostatic drive back in 1985. In 1989, this was followed by the first order for two 4-axle modular transporters which proved themselves to be a flexible and powerful transport system during operations. This resulted in a continuous expansion of the modular transporter fleet in the following years.

The high-performance K 24 modular transporter from KAMAG is used for moving large industrial installations, transportation of complete bridges or other large components. Loads ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 tonnes are no longer uncommon. In the shipbuilding sector, too, modular transporters from the TII Group are being used more and more. Depending on the weight of the ship sections to be transported, customized transporter combinations can be configured which precisely match customer requirements.

The container dimensions of the modular transporter facilitate worldwide use. As the vehicles are 2430 mm wide, this means they can be transported via water or land transport routes to anywhere in the world on a container flat rack. KAMAG modular transporters are available in a 4 or 6-axle design. The hydrostatic drive system turns the heavy-load units into powerful but nevertheless precisely controlled vehicles. The required oil pressure for the drive, lifting operations and control function is generated by a Power Pack Unit which is coupled at the rear. The electronic control allows mechanical coupling or operations using a loose coupling mode. KAMAG K24 modular transporters are also available in a "split" version with separation in a longitudinal

direction. The individual vehicle modules are compatible with previous Type 24 generation and can also be coupled to the mechanically steered K25 platform trailer.

The electronic all-wheel steering program provides a total of 8 different steering modes such as diagonal, circle or transverse. The steering movements take place by means of a low maintenance rack-and-pinion gear. The selected steering line can be moved forwards or backwards on the axle grid. The coordinate crosses for the steering and lifting systems can be separated from each other which allows highly flexible combination possibilities. Each of the modules has its own lifting system that is controlled by the on-board electronics. The entire combination can be raised or lowered or just an individual module. Every lifting group has pressure sensors for displaying and calculating the load as well as the load centre of gravity (COG).

Excerpts from TII communique

Axle line number 1.000 KAMAG K24 modular transporter at Sarens, Belgium

The first use of the 1.000th axle line – KAMAG stands for reliability and efficiency

1.000 axle lines, about 25 years of trust: The management of Sarens, KAMAG and the TII Group/TII Sales in front of the 1000^th delivered axle line KAMAG K24

30 Years of SPMT (Self Propelled Modular Transporter) from SCHEUERLE

June 2013

30 years ago, the first SCHEUERLE SPMT was developed and delivered to a company that is today the world's leading provider of heavy transport and lifting -  Mammoet in the Netherlands. In this 30-year period, SPMT has written transportation history. In this respect, Mammoet has been the initiator: if the 2,012 axle lines purchased by Mammoet with a total loading capacity of around 100,000 t were coupled together one after the other, then the 330 m high Rose Tower in Dubai - one of the tallest buildings in the world - could be loaded nine times over. Worldwide, more than 8,000 SPMT axle lines from Scheuerle are in regular use, an impressive fleet of vehicles that "moves the world".

Excerpts from TII Group Communique 

The management of SCHEUERLE and Mammoet as well as the management and owners of TII Sales and TII Group met at Pfedelbach to celebrate the 30th birthday of the SCHEUERLE Self-Propelled Modular Transporter (SPMT).

30 years old and still fully functional: One of the first ever delivered Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMT) that was given to SCHEUERLE by Mammoet during the celebration in Pfedelbach, the birthplace of the SPMT

For the 30th Birthday of the Self-Propelled Modular Transporter (SPMT), Mammoet offered one of the first delivered vehicles back to SCHEUERLE as a present and symbol of a long-term, trust-based relationship

Jan Klejn, CEO at Mammoet and Otto Rettenmaier, owner of the TII Group, cut the birthday cake for the 30th Birthday of the SCHEUERLE Self-Propelled Modular Transporter (SPMT). In the Background: Herman Smit, COO at Mammoet and Fabian Weingart, member of the Rettenmaier family

Projects: Stator Generator erection at GMR Chhattisgarh Power Plant

This month, Generator Stator weighing about 290MT was erected at GMR Chhattisgarh Power Plant.

The stator was lifted off from the trailer and erected using strandjacks mounted on Gantry system and skidding mechanism. Heavy Lifting contractor was SARENS Heavy Lift India Pvt. Ltd. SHILPL is a Group company of SARENS NV, Belgium.

In India, table top erections are mostly done by EOT tandem lifting or by this kind of an arrangement using strandjack lifting and skidding.

The Stator is brought on a Hydraulic Modular Trailer

Stator is Lifted off and Turned
90degrees using swivel mechanism

The skid tracks can be seen here

Projects: Stator Transport with Girder Bridge arrangement

TRATEC make hydraulic trailer and Girder Bridge

285T Stator Transported using Girder Bridge

This month stator weighing 285 MT was delivered at GMR Chhattisgarh Power Plant, Raikheda Village near Raipur city. Here are some photographs of the job.

New Trend: Emergence of Online Market Place for ODC Transport Services

It seems that Indian industrial Heavy transport industry marketplace is finally growing up. 

I have been getting some correspondences from websites in India who are offering a common market place for Service Providers and Service Seekers. The trend is common in the US, Europe, Australia etc...Its like metaljuction.com which is for the Indian Steel Industry. 

It is to be seen as to how this goes when Heavy Transporters are generalized as "Trolla Waley" or "Transport Wala" and how the humble Transport waley Lalaji understands the benefits from this paradigm shift. Indian transporters apart from the rare breed of professional transport company rely more on their humble red diary and telephone. There is hardly any differentiating factor where everyday a new transport company either enters or quits heavytransport.

Websites like our Loadkhoj.com, Loadjunction.com or the american import Uship.com are now trying to transform Transport Nagar into a webpage and replace Transport waley Lalaji's red diary with laptops. Tall ask but we had to start somewhere.

I chanced on an email interview with the founders of www.loadkhoj.com. Following are the excerpts from the response from the co-founders, Mr.Nilesh Agarwal and Mr. Pawan Chawla, both BE from KJ Somaiya and have experience in ODC transport:

HeavyTransportIndia: What was your Aim behind this project?

Load Khoj: Most of the Indian transportation industry relies mainly on close contacts and past experience to get business. This often limits the scope of their services to certain locations, routes, or customers. Such factors increase dependencies and hamper growth. Information about available truck or load is mostly shared over the phone, an inefficient, monotonous, and resource consuming task, and the information usually only travels a few links deep, often not in time, thereby reducing the possibility of finding return loads, which drives up costs. By enabling a better means of communication and information sharing, we hope to crank up the efficiency of the process of acquiring loads and trucks for transportation purposes. 

The idea is to enable freight owners and transporters to have instant access to a large pool of live information about the requirements of the market such as available freight (goods to be transported) as well as trucks/trailers across the country. This information is presented in a convenient and intuitive manner, so as to facilitate the user in comparing and finalizing the best deal, thereby saving time and eliminating the need for making multiple phone calls, and to serve as a tool for expanding our user's professional network.

HTI: How does your model work?

LK: With LoadKhoj.com, a freight owner looking for transportation simply fills in one’s freight details (type of load, type of truck required, dimensions, source and destination, etc) and posts it through a form on our website. Similarly, transporters post their truck (by entering current location in source, and preferred destinations if necessary) as soon as the truck is available. Using the data provided, the website automatically matches suitable truck/trailers with the loads based on certain filters. Both the users have access to all the information of the other party (details of load, truck, company info, contact info, etc). Users get instant E-mail and SMS notifications as soon as a match occurs, allowing them to save time on follow up calls.

HTI: How would it benefit the subscribers to your website?

LK: The website will help freight owners and transporters by facilitating :

1. A Broader Customer Base :  Approach a lot more people in a more targeted fashion.
2. Significantly Ease the Process of Business Acquisition : All that a transporter has to do is post a truck along with some key information, and matching freight is automatically displayed.
3. Simplifying Information Exchange : Avoid communication losses, by conveying detailed written information on the job that can be reviewed any time, eliminating the need to call up various suppliers or transporters repeatedly.
4. Increase Capacity Utilization and Reduce Waiting Times : When there is a live database with up to the minute information, it leads to lesser waiting time for finding a truck/load. It also reduces truck idling time, so more time of your truck is spent transporting.
5. Finding Return Loads : The database increases the chances of finding load to haul back home, so the truck is in use even while returning, and the cost benefits can be passed on.  

HTI: Wish you all the best!!

Seems like we are talking serious business now.

Appeal to my Readers

It is observed that my blog posts are copied and posted on social networking sites like Linkedin etc. by some people without giving credit to me or my blog. I request you to please send me a reference to your posts and refer my blog in your posts whenever you have taken references from my blog posts.

Thank you,

Aryan Brand Hydraulic Trailers

Received these transport pics from the manufacturer of Aryan Trailers. You can refer my earlier post for specifications of the trailer.

220MT Generator on 16 Axles. 6+6 Free at Front and Back!!