Moving Mazak Laser

We had to move a brand new Mazak OPN3015 laser into a sheet metal facility. This laser came in two pieces. One was huge 30ft by 9ft piece weighing 20,000 lbs, and another piece was smaller in weight and length. When it came in on a lowboy trailer, it was fully enclosed in metal crates (which in themselves were quite a piece of work).

The manufacturer specified that lifting can only be done by crane and it could not be carried by forklift. The laser had to be lifted by a crane.

The challenge was that the only dock door that was wide enough to receive this laser, was accessible by a narrow 12 foot asphalt road, surrounded by WATER (!) on both sides. You can see, on the picture to the left, that the crane had no room or ability to stick a laser through the door. Cranes lift from top, they do not put long items through door openings.

So, we conferred with the customer (in advance) and decided to use a flatbed trailer as a platform to skate the laser into the building. There was, no other way to do so, as forklifts were not allowed by the spec. The laser would be craned onto the trailer, put on skates, immediately secured by tiedowns, and trucked 100 yards into this access road to the dock. Then it would be winched in on skates, into the door.

The crane was provided by Imperial Crane. It was a Terex T340-1. First, the crates were opened up, and then the tops of the crates were lifted off and put away.

After that, the pieces were lifted off the low boy trailer. The smaller piece was set aside. The larger piece was put on the back of the flatbed trailer, on skates, and secured immediately. The trailer proceeded to the dock, where the rear of the laser was put on skates on the concrete floor of the customer's facility.

We gently pulled the laser off the rear of the flatbed, on skates, all the way inside the factory. While the skates allowed for pretty straight movement, we had to re-secure it multiple times so that nothing would happen. After all, we would hate to see it tumbling down into the nearby pond!!! The trickiest moment was watching rear ckates come off the trailer and down to the factory floor, about 2 inches lower than the trailer.

Immediately we were faced with a challenge, which is that the unloading spot was surrounded by 20 foot high pallet racks, and the laser had to be turned right there. That left us with barely any room to maneuver, but we could turn it by moving the skates to allow for gradual turning. This is a pain in the neck, but necessary as no skidding is allowed when skating such important stuff. This is not scrap metal removal, this is a very expensive new machine. It was at this point when I brought donuts for the guys.