“Our strategic location gives us an advantage to be able to ship by water in lengths, sizes and weights unsuitable for over-the-road travel. For example, we are just completing a 750-ton job of long pipe pilings,” says General Manager Michael Julian, referring to a project at Charlestown Marina’s Pier 6 and harbor walk.

According to the marina’s management, the 130-foot-long piles are 3 feet in diameter and are driven 70 feet into the harbor floor. “This robust marina is designed to stand up to adverse weather and to accommodate expected sea level rise.” Once a U.S. Navy Yard, the marina is now privately owned.

Blue Atlantic, in an effort to keep costs down in a very competitive market, sought to streamline the way it handled its raw material and finished goods. It called on NITCO Material Handling LLC, an equipment distributor in New England, for advice.

Brenden Flagg, Specialty Products Manager at NITCO, says that one of the product lines he represents is Combilift, based in Monaghan, Ireland. “Blue Atlantic reached out to me, so I went in and performed an application survey—we studied the weight, the width and depths of their loads and their process from inventory to fabrication, and how they ship the product.”

“Most steel fabricators that work on civil engineering projects do handle long loads,” Flagg says. “Combilift is a leading manufacturer of four-directional machines, which is paramount to the safety, efficiency and the storage capability to handle long products inside and outside their buildings.”

The Combilift C12000XL allowed Blue Atlantic Fabricators to move 40- to 50-foot sections into its shop and move completed material to its pier for customers to transfer onto supply barges.

100 turns

In any steel fab shop, says Flagg, the operators performing material handling tasks “are doing like 100 turns and using a cart or gantry system, which is inefficient and unsafe for ingress and egress of the building, as well as inside. With Combilift machinery, we give them amazing efficiencies and storage capabilities.”

The Combilift C12000XL model that Blue Atlantic purchased has a capacity of 12,000 pounds, is almost 8.5 feet wide, has a lift height of nearly 16 feet and a platform length of just over 4 feet. Blue Atlantic added an optional Combilift-built spreader bar, “allowing us to properly support over-length goods up to 100 feet,” Julian says.

For the Charlestown Marina project, “the Combilift C12000XL allowed us to easily transport raw material into the building in 40- to 50-foot sections and bring the completed material out and onto the pier for customer transfer to their supply barge,” says Julian. “These piles were mostly 100 feet long and weigh just over 10,000 pounds each. The use of the Combilift spreader attachment kept the operation safe and sturdy over our uneven terrain.”

Inside job

Prior to employing the C12000XL, “our method of transport would include hired trucks, trailers, cranes, etc.” Being able to manage such loads without outside vendors, he says, “allowed us just-in-time control over our material flow, resulting in time and cost savings,” Julian says.

“We have always needed a better transportation option to move raw material in and completed long material out,” he continues. “Another benefit is we no longer receive raw material inside our building, which tied up valuable crane time and floor space. We can offload a truck in minutes as opposed to hours.”

The fabricator supports an average of 100 projects per year. “Our projects can range from just a few thousand dollars to over $1 million. Our cranes, trucks and Combilift are constantly on the move. On average, we move 100 tons of product per day in our general course of business.

“Being able to quickly transport long goods in, out or quickly between our fabrication spaces will result in improved throughput, reduced man-hours and higher profits,” he predicts.

NITCO hosted “a formal training session to properly train our operators in the safe use of the equipment,” according to Julian. Says Flagg, “We provide training and service, we store parts, and we can repair machines. We are on call 24/7.”

At Blue Atlantic, Julian notes that the engine computer on the C12000XL “monitors many key maintenance components and informs the operator when maintenance is due. The Combilift-sponsored aftercare team and equipment distributor NITCO have been excellent to deal with and quickly responded to any issues we may have had,” he says. “They arrive within hours, not days, to service the equipment.

“The C12000XL meets all of our needs. We are very happy with the machine.”