Multiplast, a French manufacturer of monohulls and multihulls for ships, has purchased two Europont overhead cranes fitted with Verlinde hoists for its new composite material parts workshop.
The company, based in Vannes in Brittany, has a team of 110 employees and has produced boats that have completed an Atlantic crossing record, and won the Jules Verne trophy, the Route du Rhum, and the Volvo Ocean Race. By using cost-efficient composite components such as carbon fibre, Multiplast can build boat hulls or parts and components in any shape and dimension—the central hull of the trimarin Sode´bo, for example, was fabricated in one 32m-long piece.
After expanding into other sectors such the building industry and interior décor, Multiplast added 750sq m of floor space to its facility, increasing the total space to 2,250sq m. The building project for the extension integrated the rail tracks for the travel of the two Europont cranes into the structure of the building.
The two overhead cranes each carry two autonomous Verlinde Eurochain VR2 two-speed hoists, with lifting capacities of 1t. The two cranes and four hoists are used together or separately to move or turn over parts made of composite materials—often with relatively low weight, but with significant dimensions.
Each crane has a travel length of 30m, travel width of 17m, and a hook height of 8m. Both cranes and all the hoists are radio-controlled, and optical limit switches were added to the conventional mechanical stops to prevent any possible impact between cranes and hoists.
Jo¨rg Leubner, head of maintenance at Multiplast, said: “Our customers are major manufacturing groups such as Airbus, Thales or DCNS who demand the highest quality level and strict compliance with delivery deadlines.Verlinde chain hoists have been providing service in our three other workshops for the last 15 years and we are fully satisfied as per quality, reliability, availability of spares and after sales.
“Sere is the company that designed and installed the overhead cranes in our new building and it was they who recommended Verlinde equipment. This was a significant investment for Multiplast so it was obvious to us that we had to have equipment that we could depend on in terms of reliability and serviceability and with an appropriate cost efficiency ratio.”
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