Excellence in Galvanizing
B E Wedge has teamed up with a specialist rail infrastructure safety firm to protect steel clips used at Ghana’s largest port.
The plant collaborated with Cheltenham-based HoldFast Solutions Ltd to hot-dip galvanize over 3.5 tonnes of steel used to create clips for holding cranes in place during the loading and unloading of large shipping containers at Ghana’s Tema Port – which spans across 3.9million square metres of land.
Lee Dickens, Sales Manager at B E Wedge, explained: “Holdfast Solutions are long-standing customers and for this project we galvanized its high-strength steel clips to protect them against the elements of a demanding environment. This is especially important as the clips play a vital part in holding the rails in place – which the port’s large cranes are fixed to for the loading and unloading of what can be extremely heavy or delicate shipping containers.”
Tema Port, which is situated by the Gulf of Guinea, receives an average of 1,650 vessel calls each year comprising of container vessels, cargo vessels, tankers, cruise vessels, and roll on / roll off cargo.
Mark Coates Smith, Managing Director of Holdfast Solutions Ltd, commented: “We regularly use B E Wedge to have our adjustable rail clips galvanized so they are protected against weathering and rust, and it was important for this project because they are situated in a marine environment which naturally has high levels of salt in the atmosphere. It also means that they’ll be protected much longer than any other type of finish, with no requirement to undertake regular maintenance.”
B E Wedge is also one of the UK’s leading providers of Galblast-450, a microblast preparation followed by hot-dip galvanizing at 450oc – a service which is specifically designed to meet the requirements of the fastener industry to produce high-strength, reliable and long-lasting nuts and bolts, typically resulting in grade 8.8 – 10.9 products.