For a heavy-equipment original equipment manufacturer (OEM), overhead cranes do more than lift heavy loads. They are vital to keeping material flowing through the warehouse. When cranes are out of service, production and shipping are immediately affected.
The overhead cranes’ mission-critical role made speed especially important when the manufacturer began a major safety initiative at its Midwest facility. The project involved installing new equipment and safety technologies designed to improve the handling of loads weighing tens of thousands of pounds.
As part of the upgrade, the new crane equipment required higher electrical capacity than the facility’s existing infrastructure could support, meaning the team had to install a completely new power rail system. However, shortly before the work was scheduled to begin, the contractor responsible for the installation discovered they couldn’t provide the specialized brackets needed to mount the power rail.
The project was now facing a familiar manufacturing challenge: the work needed to move forward, but a critical component was not available.
Fortunately, the head of the project knew who to call: Estes Design & Manufacturing.
A problem with no time to spare
Having worked with Estes Design & Manufacturing in the past, the project leader knew Estes had the fabrication capabilities and responsiveness needed for such a time-sensitive project.
“When we get a call from a customer, and they need us to bail them out, we move quickly to provide a solution,” said Michael Bruns, Sales Manager at Estes Design & Manufacturing. “We understand that when something is holding up a project, the customer needs someone who can solve the problem and deliver what they need.”
In this case, the need was straightforward: fabricate more than 100 brackets with the precision and consistency required for installation in only one week.
The parts themselves were relatively simple from a fabrication standpoint. However, the simplicity did not diminish the urgency of the project. Through its Estes Accelerator prototyping program, Estes rapidly produced the brackets needed to mount the OEM’s new power rail along the overhead crane system’s runway. Because the crane runways were not all at the same elevation, the brackets included variations to accommodate different heights throughout the warehouse.
Using heavier-gauge galvanized steel up to 0.138″ thick, Estes cut the bracket profiles, including the necessary slots and features, and then formed them using press brake operations.
The turnaround speed was important because the power rail installation was directly tied to the crane upgrades. Once power was disconnected from a rail, the associated crane could not operate, and the OEM could not move its products – which can weigh more than 30,000 pounds – through the facility. The crane systems move the large assemblies between stages of production and toward shipping, making reliable crane operation essential to the entire line.
For a high-volume, 24/7 manufacturing operation, even planned downtime requires careful coordination.
Knowing when to step in
For Estes, the project put the company’s philosophy into action: be the partner who produces fabricated metal products with a level of service and quality the customer expects.
The OEM customer had other potential suppliers available, but familiarity and speed were critical to this particular project. Because of Estes’ previous relationship with the OEM and its ability to handle rapid-turn fabrication work, the customer knew the company could take on the job without a lengthy qualification process.
That familiarity helped eliminate another potential delay: finding a new supplier, communicating the requirements and determining whether that supplier could meet the schedule.
“We’ve built our business around delivering solutions to problems no one else can solve,” Bruns reflects. “Our goal is always to keep the customer moving forward as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
A small part with a big impact
The finished brackets might seem like a small job, but their role in the larger project was significant. Without them, the new power rail could not be installed as planned, potentially forcing the
OEM manufacturer to adjust its carefully scheduled shutdown work.
Estes completed the order in just three days.
For Estes, the project demonstrated how rapid fabrication capabilities, manufacturing experience and an established customer relationship can come together to solve an urgent problem.
“The part itself wasn’t necessarily complicated to create,” notes Bruns. “The difficult part was the tight schedule, which is precisely what Estes Accelerator is designed to address.”
For manufacturers operating under increasingly demanding production schedules, that kind of responsiveness can be just as valuable as fabrication capability.
In this case, a last-minute supplier problem became a three-day fabrication project, and a critical piece of a much larger crane safety upgrade stayed on schedule.
