October 20 - Vanguard has transported a 100-tonne, 38 m long cold box and other equipment for Afrox's air separation unit at the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) near Port Elizabeth.
Contracting to German forwarder Transgerma, Vanguard discharged the cold box directly from the vessel in the Cogea port onto self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) for the journey to the jobsite.
"By being self-propelled, the trailer allowed an over-hang on the front and back, so we were able to reduce the length of the trailer thereby tightening up the turning radius," said Roland Cumings, managing engineer at Vanguard.
This ensured that the trailer could negotiate road corners and access the site, without making any infrastructural changes. Authorisation was also required from the Coega Development Corporation to preserve civil works.
"The IDZ permits are even stricter than national and regional roads, involving the submission of traffic management plans, risk assessments and engineering reports," said Cumings.
Positioned on staging beams on the transporter, the cold box could then be staged on stands at the Afrox site while the trailer was hydraulically lowered and driven out.
The second phase of Vanguard's contract saw the transport of four large tanks - three for nitrogen and one for oxygen - each weighing about 100 tonnes and measuring almost 30 m in length.
"These were more technical moves, requiring long trailers and dealing with some challenging constraints such as very tight clearances between the large diameter tanks and the bridges and portal sign we had to pass under," explained Cumings. "There were at times less than two inches of clearance after activating the hydraulic lowering functions on the trailer."
Vanguard also handled all the smaller shipments of cargo such as containers and smaller breakbulk.
The new plant has been constructed by Linde Engineering, a subsidiary of the German Linde Group, of which Afrox is a member.
