October 24 - Vanguard was contracted by MA Automotive to complete two turnkey projects at the manufacturer's plant in Berlin, in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa.
The first project consisted of the offloading, transportion and rigging of six automotive panel presses - a cargo which weighed a total of 3,950 tonnes.
Vanguard used its 600-tonne gantry crane to offload the cargo from the docked vessel, before it was stored at the port and then delivered to the site in a total of 18 trips.
All of the press components were transported 100 km using Vanguard's two 14-axle Goldhofer hydraulic trailers alongside a multitude of small trailers, offloaded and rigged into position ready for the robotic components to be installed.
The second project involved installing all of the ABB robotics at the plant. This required Vanguard to use its 18-tonne Ormig pick and carry crane, and a range of smaller forklift trucks, to rig the various parts into position.
To ensure smooth operation and transition between the presses, the robotic line had to be mechanically rigged by Vanguard at the required height of 1.5 m.
