Access Platforms & Support Steelwork

Sapcote Engineering was approached by a leading snack producer in the UK to collaborate on a very complicated EN1090 structural steel design, manufacture and install project. The project objective was the replacement and upgrading to 5 off mixer sets of flour and sugar storage hoppers and associated structural support steelwork. The project needed careful planning and engineering as the existing installation was extremely cluttered with services and a phased installation required the remaining 4 off mixer sets to remain operational. Additionally, this project presented the challenge that once the decommissioning of the mixer set started there was no turning back and the new installation needed to go in the right first time.

Our approach to ensuring this was to 3D scan the entire mixer floor area including all existing structural steelwork, pipework connections and hopper locations. We could thus merge this scan data with our 3D CAD software and overlay the new steelwork, hoppers and pipework connections. Close collaboration with our client could then identify clash points with buildings or services and the appropriate engineering could then take place with full transparency for the site which greatly increased confidence.

Although the above approach required more upfront design collaboration it certainly paid dividends over the project lifecycle as the support steelwork and access platforms went into position seamlessly within the relatively short downtime available whilst maintaining production on the other mixer sets just as required in the project brief.