Merritts completes Dubai machinery relocation project

Heavy machinery moving and storage specialists Joseph Merritt Group has successfully completed a relocation project involving four Engel injection moulding machines on behalf of Polypipe Civils, a leading manufacturer of plastic piping systems.

The project duration was six weeks, with the first three weeks involving machinery decommissioning, export packing and loading to transport in Dubai, followed by the delivery, installation and recommissioning works in the UK.

The planning phase consisted of Merritts’ project managers performing a site visit in Jebel Ali, Dubai, the fully understand the requirements involved and to create a detailed scope of works for the project.

When the scope of works was finalised, method statement risk assessments and lifting diagrams were issued to the customer.

Following this, Merritts arranged for the mechanical, electrical and rigging personnel to fly out to Dubai.

On site in Dubai, Merritts ensured machinery was disconnected from mains services and that oils were drained, and moving parts of the machinery were locked off with OEM transit brackets.

Overhead cranes were used to lift the ancillary equipment from the machines and place onto bearers within pre-manufactured timber cases.

Merritts mechanical and electrical engineers then separated the clamp and injection units in each machine, and the units were then skated to an outside position and craned from a specially designed level steel platform and lowered onto pre-manufactured steel and timber packaging bases.

For the export packaging element the machines were fully vacuum packed in foil bags and cases were formed around them, before being loaded on trailers and lashing inspection certificates received for delivery from Dubai to Felixstowe.

Merritts arranged customs clearance of the goods and collected all out of gauge cases from Felixstowe and delivered them to Horncastle, where all items were offloaded and unpackaged to allow positioning as instructed by the client.

Once in position, Merritts mechanical and electrical engineers performed reassembly and reconnection, before the machinery was recommissioned.

Richard Merritt, Managing Director of Merritts, said: “Projects like this exemplify the expertise we have in transporting heavy machinery regardless of the location or complexity. Due to the varied requirements of the project, I am very proud of the high quality service delivered to the clients by our project managers, health and safety team and on-site operatives.”