( Virtual Showroom )Special Steels, a leading national supplier of certified steel round bar, hollow bar and plate to South Africa’s engineering, mining and manufacturing sectors, is moving.

The move from Wadeville, Johannesburg, to larger premises in Roodekop, will provide much needed extra warehouse space to meet increased demand for the company’s alloy and low, medium and high-carbon steels. The company sources these directly from international mills for stock, and distributes countrywide.

Special Steels managing director Byron Ferguson said the new warehouse floor area of 22800 square metres would provide more than three times the space of the company’s current 7000 square metres in Wadeville.

“At 23000 square metres, Roodekop will accommodate increased stockholdings as well as the specialised equipment we use to cut, bore and finish steel to exact customer requirements,” Ferguson said.

“It will also provide space to expand our precision-cutting and profiling capabilities, deep-hole drilling, facing and centring services.

“We will be moving in phases so that we can maintain uninterrupted steel deliveries to customers throughout,” said Ferguson.

Among the companies working closely with Special Steels to achieve a smooth transition is crane company Condra, which is to manufacture three new cranes and refurbish a further fourteen currently in use at the Wadeville warehouse.

Each of these seventeen machines will be delivered, installed and commissioned according to a specific timetable dovetailing with the phased move.

Special Steels ordered the new cranes in July, and the refurbishments in August.

The refurbishment order is the biggest for this service yet received by Condra. It includes not only comprehensive inspection and repair of the fourteen overhead cranes in use at the current warehouse, but also a substantial change to their dimensions.

Spans will be extended by 1,5 metres to fit Roodekop’s wider bays, and hoist lifting heights will be increased from 6 to 8,5 metres. This work will be executed simultaneously with the inspection and replacement of brakes and bearings, a check of all mechanicals and electricals, and careful realignment of crane girders and crabs to ensure true-running frames.

Of the fourteen cranes to be refurbished, seven are Condra machines covered by the company’s maintenance programme and expected to run reliably for many years to come. Condra will also assume responsibility for maintaining the other seven refurbished cranes.

The workflow and logistics of the Special Steels cranes are being carefully planned and coordinated.

In September, Condra will deliver, install and commission the three newly manufactured cranes as the first step in the programme. These are 2m-class workshop machines already at an advanced stage of production, featuring standard speeds, variable drives on all motions and remote control supported by pendant back-up. Two will be identical 10-ton units servicing the same bay and spanning 29,4 metres. The third, a 25-ton capacity crane spanning 18,3 metres, will replace a competitor’s crane which is to be scrapped.

Next on the schedule will be the first three refurbished cranes to be delivered in October, then three more in November, four in December and the final four in January 2025.

Each refurbished crane has its own timetable for removal from the Wadeville warehouse, transportation to Condra’s factory in Germiston, stripping, inspection, girder extension, refurbishment, reassembly and transportation to the new warehouse in Roodekop for installation and commissioning.

Condra will also move and reinstall three jib cranes, relatively new machines, as part of the contract.

Crane refurbishment is frequently undertaken by Condra, because of the advantages of an immediate realisation of cost savings over buying new, and the continued use of an as-new machine already familiar to the crane operators, avoiding any need for retraining. Production can continue with no change to established procedure.

Condra offers the options of changing crane span during refurbishment (as in the case of Special Steels) as well as crane capacity, and modifying the gear reduction and electrical input. Cranes 20 years or older can usually be improved by installing variable frequency drives to facilitate acceleration and deceleration. Enhancements such as a digital read-out on the load and remote control can also be fitted.

Refurbished Condra cranes are guaranteed for two years, those from rival firms for one year.