Sere Maintenance modernises KP1's concrete handling

Established in 1962 in Vertou, Loire-Atlantique, Sere Maintenance focuses on designing and selling lifting equipment, handling systems and overhead cranes throughout Brittany. Sere Maintenance's versatile professionals also perform every required study, test, check (General Routine Checks) and repair on this machinery and equipment. To keep metal structures durable and robust, they manufacture and export products and accessories designed for cathodic protection (rectifiers, anodes, electrodes, switch cabinets and boxes, etc.). Sere Maintenance distributes VERLINDE equipment commercially and belongs to the EUROPONT network. Sere Maintenance was approached by KP1, France's leading name in prefabricated construction systems, to design and build a custom overhead process crane for transporting and handling concrete at one of its 20 production plants, situated at Saint-Jacques de la Lande (dept. 35).

KP1 is a building-industry player solidly embedded in local economies, with 39 plants including 20 production units spread across France. The group's investment is ongoing to optimise its manufacturing performance and logistics, through programs for major repairs to its concrete plants and production lines, and it constantly integrates new processes for its products. It has also launched a large-scale CSR (corporate social responsibility) plan to move the industry toward greater responsibility.

KP1 handed Sere Maintenance the renewal and maintenance of its lifting devices and systems 5 years ago, and its services have outshone what competing firms offer.

For its concrete slabs manufacturing facility, KP1 needed to optimize its overhead crane. It was used to move loads of 3.6 tonnes of concrete from the production plant to the hoppers, a distance of approximately ten meters, where the slabs are poured. When the system was upgraded, KP1 wanted it automated in order to increase the security of concrete loads, since their liquid nature made them unstable and because they were off-center relative to the crane. As the approach dimensions were reduced, the crane had to be made to measure.

A crane engineered to automate load transport and keep it secure via a suspended tank

Sere Maintenance put together a 5-tonne double beam bridge (5 x 14 meters) built around a VERLINDE EUROBLOC VT3 electric hoist with dual wire-rope outlet. Since the load sits off-centre relative to the crane, the pair of lifting points keeps it stable, while the hoist's adjustable travel speed allows very fine load placement, aided by an ergonomic hook.
Once raised, electric jacks close in around the load inside a funnel, keeping it secure throughout handling.

The double-beam crane is suspended, which reduces its approach dimensions, in particular around the casting area, where an operator takes over manual control of the load. The double-rail trolley is also suspended.

Design through commissioning took Sere Maintenance just 5 months on this project. What KP1 gets from the new process crane: a tighter footprint, better safety and simpler handling.