A family of billet lifting beams for a global aluminium leader
Coordinated range of purpose-built lifting beams covering the full variety of billets produced on one of the most advanced primary aluminium facilities in the Middle East.
Client: Leading premium aluminium producer, Middle East
Challenge
The client — one of the world's largest premium aluminium producers — operates an advanced continuous-casting facility that produces billets across a wide range of diameters and lengths. Every billet has to be lifted clear of the casting line and moved safely through downstream inspection, cutting and transfer stations. Off-the-shelf lifting equipment couldn't cover the full variability without compromise, so a purpose-built family of beams was required — each tuned to a specific billet format, but all built to a single, consistent engineering and documentation standard.
Engineering response
Somers Handling worked closely with the client's engineering team from the outset. A detailed review of billet dimensions, weight profiles, crane envelopes and casting-hall geometry drove the design of a coordinated beam range sharing common safety features and rigging characteristics. Each unit was designed, fabricated, painted and load-tested at our Wednesbury works before shipment. Materials and coatings were selected specifically to cope with the radiant heat of a hot casting-hall environment, and each beam was supplied with a complete certification pack including proof-load test records.
Outcome
Once testing and customer approval were complete, the beams were crated and shipped from Wednesbury to the customer's Middle East facility, where they are now in daily service across the billet casting operation. Supplying a coordinated suite of beams rather than a collection of disparate items has simplified day-to-day handling for operators, reduced changeover complexity between billet sizes, and given the client a single point of engineering responsibility for this part of the lift plan. The project further strengthens a long-term relationship with a customer whose name is synonymous with quality in the global aluminium industry.
Continuous billet casting produces aluminium billets in a demanding range of diameters and lengths — and every billet has to come off the casting line, through inspection, through cutting and onward to transfer, without surface damage and without interrupting the cadence of the line. For an operation at the scale of one of the world’s largest premium aluminium producers, the margin for error on lifting equipment is vanishingly small.
A coordinated range, not a catalogue of one-offs
The design work centred on a set of beams that would behave as a family — consistent rigging characteristics, common safety features, matching documentation — while being individually optimised for the specific billet dimensions each was intended to lift. This matters operationally: crane operators move between billet sizes many times a day, and the closer the family behaves, the shorter the learning curve and the fewer the handling errors.
Engineering highlights
- A matched range of beams spanning the client’s full billet diameter and length variety.
- Structural arrangement sized for the repetitive, high-cycle duty of continuous casting.
- Lifting points and rigging geometry matched to the customer’s overhead crane configuration.
- Materials and coatings selected to suit the demands of a hot casting-hall environment.
- Complete certification pack supplied with each beam, including proof-load test records.
In service
The beams were load-tested and signed off at our Wednesbury works, then crated and shipped to the customer’s Middle East facility. They are now in daily service across the billet casting operation — giving the client a coordinated lifting solution and a single point of engineering responsibility for this part of their lift plan.
Similar challenge on your site?
Send a short description of the load, environment and duty — a Somers engineer will be in touch within one working day.