Sonoco – Monorail

Sonoco operates three busy manufacturing plants in Auckland, Kawerau and Christchurch which all required an overhead lifting system to load and unload mandrels into the Tube and Core manufacturing machines and installed with minimal disruption to their operation.

The production machinery, supporting tables and decoilers had already been in place for many years so it was necessary to work around these obstacles to ensure a new overhead monorail could be installed directly above the centreline of the machinery. Our installations team had to plan working around this existing machinery whilst in some cases the production line was still operating.

Also the shape of the building had to be taken into account to ascertain the best position to place the supporting legs and how they could be anchored.

• Our client Sonoco required an overhead monorail crane system to facilitate the safe and easy maintenance of its machinery, which operated up to 12 hours a day within their processing plant. The system was designed to include electric chain hoists and trolleys.
• An overhead monorail crane system is usually a relatively straightforward design process but for this client, it proved a little more complicated. The design would need to take into consideration the low roof height and the existing portal structure.
• Three individual impressive crane systems which included a working load limit of up to 2000kg were designed and presented to each plant for approval and sign off. To mitigate the machinery obstructions, pipework and electrical cabling, the design team proposed a supporting structure comprising of two separate goal post structures to support the track system.
• The supporting structure and monorail track was painted with an impact resistant powder coating to cope with the demanding elements.
• Our trained and competent lifting equipment engineers applied their vast knowledge and experience to complete the design, manufacturing and installation within the allotted time.
• A solution for this difficult application and challenge was achieved through our team, working closely with our client and their contractors.