Bespoke scaffolds

This coking plant – once the biggest in Europe – used to transform coal into coke in its 300+ furnaces. At its centre is the quenching station – a building with railway tracks running through it and walls covered in a whole array of attachments and pipes. It is not possible to simply set up scaffolds against such walls. On the contrary, they have to be carefully modified so that they fit around any obstacles and additional fittings or extensions perfectly. XERVON uses state-of-the-art technology to achieve just this: the geometry of the building was scanned with laser technology and the scan’s results used to create a three-dimensional plan of the scaffold structures.

Three interior scaffolds – each around 8,000m² – were needed to enable the renovation work to be carried out inside the building. They were designed so that the work platforms spanned the former bench level. This is effectively a covered gallery that is about four metres above the ground and runs along the whole of the wall. At the same time, an area of ca. 3.5 x 4.5 metres had to be kept clear above the railway tracks running through the inside of the quenching station. Last but by no means least, the team also had to come up with a bespoke solution for the logistics because lorries were unable to access this long building. Again, this was not a problem for XERVON’s experts: they built two wagons from pieces of scaffolding and used the old railways tracks to transport the material – a quick, efficient and ergonomic solution.