ABUS EOT and jib cranes for a steel fabricator in Sweden

Sweden is well known for two things in particular among many others: its passion for winter sports and a long tradition in producing steel. LECOR Stålteknik AB (www.lecor.se), a company in Kungälv (north of Gothenburg), married these two in a spectacular project: the ski-jump at Holmenkollen.

LECOR Stålteknik was founded in 1965. LECOR Stålteknik employ about 300 staff in Sweden and they are well known for their great competence in steel construction techniques. Engineers and technicians work together on projects such as bridge construction, industrial buildings, process industries, off-shore construction, and sports arenas. It was in 2008 when LECOR Stålteknik won a very special project: to provide and install the steel construction of the ski-jump at Holmenkollen near Oslo. The ski-jump required about 1,100 tonnes of steel and 2,000 welded and bolted-down steel girders. Tolerances of ± 50 mm made high precision imperative. The construction was finished well in time for the inauguration of the ski arena. This new ski-jump was used for the first time on the occasion of the ski world championships 2011 in Norway.

LECOR Stålteknik took a jump after this massive success: enlarging their production plant. They created a new production line for steel frames and more complex steel structures as needed in bridge building for example. The new plant is equipped with machines for modern steel construction technologies and features drilling and cutting machines for large format sheets, plasma cutters, sheet-metal saws, and beam straightening machines among many others. This new production plant was inaugurated in November 2011 and the total production area was increased by 6,700 square metres.

LECOR Stålteknik relied on ABUS Kransysteme to provide the necessary cranes. LECOR Stålteknik and ABUS Kransysteme, represented by the Swedish daughter company ABUS Kransystem AB (www.abus-kransystem.se), look back on a long and successful cooperation. ABUS supplied seven jib cranes and five EOT cranes. These single and double girder EOT cranes are employed in transporting huge sheets within the plant. The cranes have spans of 21 metres and load capacities of ten and twenty tonnes respectively. The jib cranes of the VW type have load capacities of 1.6 tonnes and jib arms 4 metres long serving the individual work stations with work parts. The complete order from project planning right through to the installation was handled by JJ-Gruppen at Kungsbacka (near Gothenburg) (www.jjgruppen.se), the local agent of ABUS Kransystem AB.

Sweden came only third in the medal table on the occasion of the ski world championships in 2011 but LECOR won a special award for the ski-jump: Together with the steel manufacturer COWI, they were awarded the special prize of the jury of the Tekla Global BIM Award 2011. The software company Tekla awards this award for exceptional projects using their software for the design and the assembly of complex structures. Other ABUS customers have also been successful in this competition in the past.