Installation for the railroad industry in Malaysia

A head for heights: that’s what the SCHOLPP Malaysia team needed when it took on a job from Posco Engineering & Construction. A new rail depot with a train maintenance center is being built in Seri Kembangan/Serdang, south of Kuala Lumpur, and Posco E & C supplied it with a new 18-ton underfloor wheel lathe for the technical overhaul of train wheels. The challenge for SCHOLPP was to find a solution for the building’s extremely low access opening and low ceiling height.

Posco Engineering & Construction is a leading infrastructure equipment supplier in Asia, specializing in road, rail and port projects, and is also involved in fitting out the new rail depot in Serdang, near the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. The large facility is still under construction and will house a central maintenance and reconditioning facility for trains on the Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya line. Together with the Sungai Buloh depot, the Serdang depot will be the main depot for the new rail lines.

Success in Asia since 1995: SCHOLPP’s Malaysia branch

SCHOLPP’s Malaysia branch is located only about 30 kilometers from the rail depot. Since 1995, the team at the branch has been supporting Asia’s growing economy with its installation expertise and technical equipment. The new underfloor wheel lathe, which Posco E & C delivered to the depot, needed to be unloaded, unpacked, brought into the workshop and positioned in the pit at its final location within just seven working days. Seven days initially seems a lot for just one machine, but the crux of this job was how to deal with its dimensions of 4.5 x 2.15 x 2.30 meters and weight of 18 tons, in relation to the small hall door, the low ceiling height and the narrow pit.

With SCHOLPP’s well-equipped technology fleet in Malaysia and appropriate planning, this was an easy problem to solve. The TG 250 hydraulic two-post lifting gantry (max. load of 68 tons) was configured and erected by the fitters so as to provide sufficient room to maneuver in the narrow hall, especially the pit, and within the height restriction imposed by the hall ceiling. The machine was first unloaded and then unpacked using a mobile crane. The SCHOLPP fitters used forklift trucks and heavy-duty undercarriages to transport the lathe far enough into the hall for it to be picked up by the lifting gantry.

Swift move-in and precise positioning

Due to the low ceiling height, the lifting gantry could only lift the machine a few centimeters in order to maneuver it above the pit, where it was to be placed in its final position. The machine had to be lowered and positioned on the foundations with pinpoint accuracy, due to the spatial restrictions. No matter how confined the space, the SCHOLPP planners and the fitters identified solid technical solutions for every individual step in the transport and assembly process. And the SCHOLPP Team Malaysia fitters' experience with machines and routines for handling lifting equipment meant the underfloor wheel lathe was positioned correctly and on time.