Rigging and freight basics for a machine leaving your plant

Getting a machine out of a building is a trade of its own, and most of the surprises are avoidable with an afternoon of measuring. This guide states no cost figures, because a move is priced from your building and your machine, not from a table. What it does is tell you what the people quoting will ask for, so the first answer you get is a real one.

Who pays for inbound freight and rigging on a consignment is one of the items agreed in writing before the machine ships. We help arrange both, and we can put you in front of crews and carriers who move this class of equipment.

A rigger and a millwright are different trades

A millwright disconnects, breaks down and later reinstalls the machine: services, alignment, the mechanical work at both ends. A rigger moves mass: jacking, skating, cranes, gantries, load paths, securing to a trailer. Some firms do both, many do not, and the gap between them is where jobs stall on the day. Decide early which trade owns each task, and write it down.

The measurements everybody will ask you for

Nobody can quote without these, and a wrong number is the most common reason a collection fails on the day.

• Overall length, width and height of the machine, and of each section if it comes apart.
• Weight, and where the weight sits. A machine with a heavy head is a different lift from an evenly loaded frame.
• Lifting and jacking points, and whether there are any.
• Door and dock clear height and width, measured rather than remembered.
• Overhead clearance along the whole route: sprinklers, ducting, cable trays, doorframes, lighting.
• Floor loading limits, and any pit, trench, drain cover or expansion joint on the route.
• Turning space at every corner, and any step, ramp or change of level.
• Whether a crane can reach, and where it would stand.

The route out is part of the price

A machine on the ground floor near a dock is a different job from the same machine on a mezzanine behind a structural wall. Walk the whole route before anybody quotes, and walk it in the direction the machine will travel. If a wall panel has to come out, find that out now, not on the morning the crew arrives.

Sequence removals by access rather than by value. A machine that has to be moved twice is charged twice, and the machine at the back of the bay decides the order for everything in front of it.

What has to be live while the crew is in the building

Power, lighting and compressed air in the removal zone, and a working dock or overhead door. Utilities get canceled the moment a plant stops making anything, which is exactly when the removal crews need them. Set the shut-off dates against the removal schedule in writing, and keep 1 person with keys who knows where the isolators are.

Crating, packing and marking

The machine sits on a base a forklift or a crane can take. Delicate parts are boxed separately and marked. Anything that moves in transit is locked or secured: carriages, heads, gantries, doors, hinged guards. Screens and control panels get protected.

Mark every piece with the same identifier, so a machine that arrives on 3 trucks is reassembled into 1 listing rather than 3 mysteries. The tooling crate is marked with the machine it belongs to.

What a carrier needs before quoting

Pickup address and access, delivery address, dimensions and weight per piece, number of pieces, whether the load is oversize, whether a crane is needed at either end, the date window, and any permit requirement. For an oversize load, add the height above deck, because that is what decides the route.

The paperwork that travels with it

A packing list of what is actually on the truck, the signed consignment agreement, the manuals and diagrams, and clear evidence the machine is yours to consign. If a machine has processed anything hazardous, that is declared in writing before it ships. Machines arrive drained, cleaned and safe to handle.

Tell us the weights, dimensions, number of pieces and expected arrival before the truck is booked. We check the machine in against that list, and anything that does not match is sorted out while it is still easy to sort out.