Thursday, March 11, 2010

Before & After - Crane Axles

We recently received a call to pick up and repair a couple of crates that were damaged in shipment. These crates contained 2000 pound crane axles and were bound for Asia but sustained damage en route to it's flight out of NY from the manufacturer.

As seen in the first photo, the crate base cracked in half and separated from the walls. The original crates (not ours) were not adequate for this weight and required completely new crates of a different design. The first challenge was to safely offload the damaged crates from the truck. Since the crate was in pieces, it prevented us to lift the crate as we normally would. Doing so would have caused the axle to "roll" out of whatever was left of the crate and sustain damage. Using various tools, straps and forklifts, we were able to safely remove the crates from the truck.

We then proceeded to build two new crates with more substantial supports and bracing suitable for items of this weight. The axles were loaded, blocked and banded in then returned to the airport for immediate shipment out.