Many industrial plants, such as aluminium smelters, rely on processes that take place below ground. Smelting kilns are often built beneath the workshop floor and require regular maintenance and repair to keep the smelting process quality levels high.
SCX was given the challenge of designing and installing a bespoke solution to provide maintenance access to the kilns. The system would need to deploy both personnel and equipment 5 metres down into the kilns and retrieve them in a safe, efficient and flexible way.
SCX’s solution is a man-riding platform system, comprising a mobile base frame onto which a number of traversing and elevating cradles can be mounted. The entire base frame can be lifted with an overhead crane and moved around the workshop to service multiple banks of kilns.
Once positioned over the kiln pit, the frame’s cradles are lowered and raised to and from the kilns, providing full, safe access for staff along with their maintenance equipment.