A MAJOR equipment refurbishment project was recently undertaken by Konecranes at Mondi – refurbishing a 16.8 tonne digester jib ahead of schedule.
Taking 52 days, the job involved the removal, design, reverse engineering, painting, re-assembling, installing, wiring and final commissioning of the jib.
The job commenced in October when Konecrane’s Richards Bay team undertook the challenging removal of the crane.
The Jib sat 80m high on top of the digester and a 440 tonne mobile crane with luffing booms was used to remove it, together with another 220 tonne mobile crane.
The removal took about seven days owing to weather problems, including strong winds.
‘The whole project ran smoothly despite the often adverse weather conditions’, said John MacDonald, Konecranes Service Director.
‘We have an excellent crew, led by Ferdi Pieterse, which made this possible.’
The digester jib was handed over on 30 January, a month ahead of schedule.
